New German Girl

Now That You’re Back in California…

2011-07-10T08:12:00.001+02:00

It’s been about a month now since I returned to California. Okay, not really. More like three weeks. But it feels like it’s been a month and it’s gone by so fast. I haven’t really slowed down at all since I got home either, which helps to make time go by. Once or twice I sat down to write about all of the details but I just don’t have the heart to write in this blog right now because my heart it isn’t in it anymore. I’m not an au pair anymore and I’m not in Germany. This blog was incredible and probably one of the best decisions I could have made in terms of documenting my experience but it’s just not practical or interesting to me anymore. I hope that it will continue to exist as a resource for future Deutschland bound au pairs or other travel enthusiasts or fans but for now, after this entry, I won’t be writing here anymore. Don’t worry though – I have a new, more appropriate (and probably less exciting) venue to document my everyday (give or take) experiences. But I’m getting to that.

Basically, I just wanted to write and say that coming home hasn’t been difficult but it hasn’t been easy either. I haven’t had any reverse culture shock – none whatsoever – and I haven’t had any breakdowns yet in which I am debilitated by my longing for my past European life. (Tiago was here for nine days which might have had something to do with that! I didn’t feel sad or lonely until he left me to go back to Munich. Boo!) I am bored, yes, and I am lonely, oh yeah, but it’s balanced with the expectations that I have for myself. I’m living a new life – a version of my life that seems kind of familiar but is completely brand new – and I am trying really hard to adjust to that. Which I will document in my future and new blog. :)

From now on I will be writing at http://heatherbythesea.blogspot.com. I hope you’ll update your bookmarks and subscription feeds or whatever else you use and will keep reading. Thank you SO MUCH for following me for the last year and going on this journey with me. It was the best of my life and I am so grateful for the fact that you were willing and eager to read about my life as I lived it.

Reflections from California

2011-06-22T19:50:00.001+02:00

Well… for the first time in over a year, this blog update comes to you from the great state of California. I am home, I have arrived, and I am alive. Despite having to travel on a bum foot, I made it across three countries (Germany, Canada, and the US), the Atlantic ocean, and am only six hours away from reuniting with my mom in San Luis Obispo. I am writing this to you from the cabin of an Amtrak train where just ten minutes ago, my dearest friend Lauren, put me on a train at the infamous Union Station in Los Angeles. She picked me up the night before at LAX and together, with her lovely German boyfriend, Basti (Queue inside joke: “Put ze baby on my butt!”), we went to In-N-Out where I had a worthy “welcome home” meal – a Double Double with mustard, no sauce, In-N-Out’s delicious crispy french fries, and a not-so-good American Coke (I miss Germany’s version!).

And yeah… I’m home. Wow. I haven’t really had a moment to myself to sit back and think about what that means to me. It’s weird though and I’m sure it will feel this way for days. During the eleven hour plane ride all I could focus on was whether or not my foot was going to explode due to cabin pressure. I couldn’t really focus on my inevitable to descent to American soil. At the airport, all I could think about was how stupid Lauren and I had been for not exchanging better contact details – I hoped she would find me. And find me she did! And once we were together, all I could think about was In-N-Out and how happy I was to see her again. And to hear Basti’s unmistakable Bavarian accent – I might as well have still been there. And then, it kind of started to hit me as I iced my foot and watched Kate Plus 8 and Cake Boss and ate delicious ice cream sandwiches from the comfort of Lauren’s blessedly massive couch.

“This is the first American TV on actual TV that I’ve watched in over a year!” I exclaimed, as the realization of my return started to set in. And, in my opinion, TLC was a worthy channel to initiate my return to American media. (I love that channel! If it had been 19 Kids and Counting, I would have been in heaven!) And then – all of a sudden – I was tired. It hit me that back in Munich, it was pushing 4 am and I’d slept a total of 2 hours during my travels. I needed to go to bed. So, I took a shower (I missed you stationary shower heads!) and then crashed. Sleep was easy – I passed out right away. But staying asleep was the tricky part. I woke up about three or four times over the course of my eight hour night and kept checking the clock. 12:42, 2:34, 3:45. In Munich, it would have been late morning to mid afternoon. In fact, I went to bed in California at about the same time that I would have woken up in Munich to start a regular work day.

When I did wake up, at 5:45, it was to the sound of the Harry Potter theme song on my Verizon cell phone – a phone that I hadn’t been able to use for a over a year. My ankle was throbbing – I hadn’t felt that much pain in the thing since the morning before I went to have the injury diagnosed. I quickly swallowed an IBU 600 (I love prescription strength drugs!) and readied myself for the rest of the day – my final travels through California. (Kind of.) Lauren fed me toast and orange juice and Basti loaded my suitcases into the car and then we were on our way – and not with a moment to spare. We arrived at Union Station within 20 minutes of my train’s departure. I checked in, checked my bags (which would arrive in San Luis Obispo on a later train), and then we got a go cart to drive me to the platform. As a result, our goodbye was kind of muddled but I know I’ll see her again soon. That’s the beauty of having friends that live in California. You’ll always reunite.

And now… here I am. Riding in a four-seater with my foot elevated and an electrical outlet to my right – rightfully blogging, something I feel I haven’t done properly in weeks. But, strangely enough, it’s still all so surreal. I don’t think it’s really hit me quite yet. Even as the train passes through the ghetto of Los Angeles and winds it way through Glendale, Burbank, Northridge, and Camarillo – all places that I’ve been through and seen a thousand times – it stills feel so foreign to me. Maybe it’s because my heart really is lost in Bavaria. Eventually it will find it’s way back to California but for now, it’s still in Germany and although I am very happy and excited to get back to my life here, I really miss the year of my life that I just left behind.

I don’t even know if I could put into words how much that year of my life meant to me. Being in Germany changed me – at first, it was a rough and emotional change but then it turned around and I learned a lot about my past situations and turned my regrets into opportunities of renewal. I learned from everything that happened to me while I was in Germany and I know that my entire experience changed me into a person who is so completely different from when I first left to start my adventure.

I met so many incredible people on my journey – friends that I will have and cherish for the rest of my life. Soulmates, sisters, brothers, lovers. I met each and every one for a specific reason and they all came into my life because they were supposed to be there. Who would I have been if I had not met them? What kind of an experience would I have had if they had not been there? Through the long nights of binge drinking, club dancing, gossiping, debauchery, fighting, and whatever else we got into we sealed our own fates. We will never forget those moments that we shared. We built our lives around each other and those people and the memories that we made together will forever shape me. To each and every one of you, from June of last year until just last week, you are forever in my heart and I love you so much. Thank you for being there with me and sharing the year with me.

Of course, I went to Germany to work but it ended up being nothing more than background noise to my entire adventure. I love the girls and I will miss them – of course, in the same way that I miss and love any other children that have come and gone from my life. They were great girls – so smart and sharp, full of sunshine and so sweet. They had their moments, like any normal child would, but for the most part, they were well-adjusted and strong little girls. They will have some rough years ahead of them, no doubt, but it is my hope that they will overcome and grow into beautiful, strong, and respectful young women. Hopefully I can visit them again throughout the years and keep up with them. I’d hate to lose touch with them. Their mother, however crazy she was and however difficult she made my life at times, will never be forgotten. Infamously – of course, but I am grateful for the chance that she gave me to come into her family and take part in her culture and be a part of the city. I never felt like she was a mother figure to me but to be fair, she didn’t really try very hard sometimes. Haha. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the opportunity that she gave me. I wish her the best with her future au pairs and hope that she realizes soon that she doesn’t really need one and could save herself a lot of money every year on that realization. Haha.

Being a part of Germany was an incredible experience for me. I’d never been to Europe before I started this adventure. I’d never really traveled anywhere or done anything very remarkable with my life. Well, except for my summer camp counselor adventure but these two experiences wouldn’t exist without the other so… I take that back. My summer camp adventure was the first remarkable thing that I’d ever done and, even though I didn’t know it then, it changed my life. Germany changed my life. I keep saying that and I’m not really backing it up with any evidence, am I?

Being in Germany taught me a lot about myself and helped me discover parts of my heart and soul that I didn’t even know I had. I went through a lot of emotions while I was in Germany. I was hurt and battered by a lot of men and I made a lot of stupid decisions, usually while I was drunk, but I learned a lesson every time. Sometimes I repeated the same stupid mistakes and hated myself for it but in the end, I came to realize that I wouldn’t get anything of life if I didn’t have those mistakes to learn from. I didn’t go looking for them, of course, but when they happened – I tried not to beat myself up about it. Life will, most definitely, change now that I am home but the life that I had in Germany was worth living. I will forever be a different person because of the things that I experienced while I was there. For the rest of my life I will always have those “one year in Germany” stories to tell every new person that I meet and I’ll always have that interesting edge over the less traveled and more stationary people that I meet. Gives me something to look forward to as I go out into the world and introduce myself to new people and new opportunities.

I can’t really identify with how it feels to be home. I think those words will come over the next few weeks and months as I get settled into my life again. Right now, I am happy to be home but I am missing Germany. In a few weeks, I will probably be bored of home and crying for Germany. And then something will come up – I’ll start my new job or I’ll meet a sweet, handsome new boy – and I’ll love California again and Germany will be just a fleeting thought. It will come and go and fluctuate as my life changes. All that I can do now is remain grateful and appreciative for the year that I spent in Germany and know that nothing I do, from here on out, will ever compare to the adventure that I just experienced.

And do I dare quote and improvise Rihanna lyrics? Somehow, given the year of my life and the amount of Rihanna that I listened to, danced to at clubs, and sang karaoke too, it seems appropriate (and not to mention the amount of times that it rained while I was in Munich). She’s kind of become synonymous with my time in Germany, anyway.

Germany, you had my heart
And we’ll never be worlds apart

Blahblahblah.
You can stand under my umbrella.

No? It doesn’t work? Haha. Oh well. Germany, I will miss you. Thank you for everything. You have my heart. Forever.

Happy Anniversary!– One Year Passed and the Unconventional Gift I Gave Myself

2011-06-16T11:28:00.001+02:00

As of yesterday, I have been in Germany for exactly one year. On June 15th, 2010 I boarded a plane in Los Angeles and arrived in Germany 12 or so hours later. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year already. And it’s been an awesome year – as you know if you’ve been reading this blog the whole time. I haven’t been writing much, it’s true, because I’ve had other things to do but once I get back to California, I’ll be able to collect my thoughts and have some serious ~~and emotional~~ reflections. For now, I’m just here to say, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GERMANY! We started our year long love affair one year ago! Ich liebe dich. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I had all kinds of celebrations planned. One of which went horribly wrong. Haha.

On Tuesday night, I went to one of our favorite bars, Shamrock’s Irish Pub for one last Tuesday night of karaoke, beer, and good friends. It turned into a shitstorm of craziness. It was totally worth it though. Because even though I ended up in the hospital because of it, I was with my friends and I had a GREAT night. Absolutely no regrets.

But… yeah. I ended up in the hospital simply because I am a klutz and when I’m drunk, I’m a super klutz. Although I don’t remember much of the details, apparently I fell down the stairs to the bathroom (there are two of them, ha) as the bar was closing and ended up on the floor. I remember my ankle hurting but it wasn’t unbearable because I walked 1/5 of the way home from the bar. Pretty much the length of my entire street, which is about 8 to 10 blocks. Somewhere along the walk, I lost one of my shoes and my wallet. Woops. (My shoe was found my the twins down the street. Ha. Thanks, girls!) I’m pretty sure I remember hobbling the whole way home but it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t walk on it. But when I woke up in the morning… hot damn. It hurt.

It took some convincing but I managed to get my host-mom to take me to the hospital. I was miserable. I was laying in my room, crying for my mom. It was sad. So, she gave me taxi money, my angel-amazing-of-a-friend Ana agreed to meet us at the hospital and help me out and then we were on our way. It was slow goes it because I couldn’t put any weight on my right foot. But we managed it okay. In the end, we didn’t stay at the hospital because the wait was like 4 hours so Ana used her SmartPhone and found an orthopedic doctor and we taxied to Odeonsplatz for a second shot. From there, I was given crutches and properly examined.

Turns out that I tore the ligaments in my ankle and I won’t need surgery but just have to rest and wear an ankle brace for the next four weeks. I’m still on crutches now because everything is still tender and sore but I’m trying to recover! It’s put a bit of a damper on my packing and cleaning plans. Also, I’m mostly sad about the fact that I can’t continue running for a while. I was doing SO good and was so into it and now I have to take a break. Hopefully it won’t be hard to take up again and my ankle won’t give me any problems later. Lord knows I have enough issues with my feet!

Right now, I’m trying to focus on rest and getting the swelling to go down but it’s hard when I have packing and other crap that I have to do. Also, I’m only here for FOUR MORE DAYS. So I have a lot of goodbyes to get through and hopefully no more stupid, idiotic injuries.

Berlin

2011-06-10T21:16:00.001+02:00

I don’t know how to write about my trip to Berlin. It was fucking awesome. Pardon my French but seriously. It was. I’ve sat down and tried to write a detailed report on the weekend and I just couldn’t do it. Let me see if I can sum it up. I went on a road trip with three of my really close friends here in Munich and we drove five hours to Berlin where we met up with some other friends – people that we knew from Munich or our past and separate lives – Laura and Alison – and we spent the weekend clubbing, wandering the wild and vibrant streets of Berlin from 11 pm until 5:30 or 7 in the morning, drinking Berliner Pils (and Augustiner Helles, too!), and touring incredible German history sites. We took a four hour walking tour in the merciless east German heat and I stood beside the Berlin wall. The bunker where Hitler killed himself is now covered by a parking lot. I saw the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his tiny baby out of a window. Checkpoint Charlie is really overrated. The Berlin Cathedral looks ancient but it really isn’t that old. Communism was crazy. The sun was out the entire weekend and it was glorious. Karaoke is much more fun to watch when you’re in an outdoor stadium with three hundred other people. Flea markets sell super cheap friendship bracelets and a shitload of vinyl records. I went to the most fabulous party found myself surrounded by gay boys and never felt happier or more wonderful. Berlin helped me embrace my inner fag hag and brought me a whole gaggle of new gay boyfriends. I find that I can never have enough. I ate bratwurst from men that walked around and wore sausage grills over their shoulders. Have grill, will travel. I didn’t go to bed before 3:30 am on any night of the entire weekend. I ate the best cheeseburger I’ve ever tasted… twice. I didn’t have proper Berlin currywurst. Damn. I bonded with my skinny love. I loved Berlin. I absolutely loved it.

Yours truly at Brandenburg Tor
(I prefer the one in Munich, to be honest.)

Jewish War Memorial

The Berlin Wall

Berlin Cathedral

Inside the cathedral

Berlin wall’s East Side Gallery

Outdoor karaoke

Flea market vinyls

Alison, Fio, and me – Berliners!

My skinny love with some of Berlin’s fine city artwork

5:30 in the morning, around the corner from the club – the cityscape

Anne and I truly love our pretty boys

My knight in indie armor. I love.

Berlin looks good on me.

Ich Bin Ein Berliner! (No, Seriously… I Am! Okay… Maybe Not)

2011-06-02T12:58:00.001+02:00

Well, ladies and gents, I am off to Berlin today! I am so excited because I would have been devastated if I had missed a tripped to Berlin while I was here. It’s one of the places that I really, really wanted to see while I was here in Germany. Fortunately, I have really good friends and so this trip to Berlin has been really easy to plan. My good friend Anne, who is one of my few German friends in Germany, comes from the Berlin area and so she’s providing the car for an epic road trip. Fio and Nuno will join us on our 5 or so hour adventure up north and we will meet our respective parties once we get into the city. My close friend Alison, who I met while working at Camp Cayuga in 2007, is living in Berlin right now and so Nuno, Anne, and I will be staying with her there. Our friend Laura, who once lived here in Munich with us, is going to school in Berlin now so Fio will be staying with her there and we will see her, too. It’s going to be a weekend of sight seeing, beer drinking, and club dancing and I am so excited. I haven’t been on a proper vacation since Rome and I’m looking forward to getting away for a few days! Especially since my time in Munich is dwindling down to mere days. Only 19 of them left!

JFK in Berlin

He just said, therefore, I am a donut!
Since a “Berliner” is a German donut. Ha.
Silly Americans.

(And as you can already tell, I have given up on the 30 Days of Germany challenge, in which I post a German something or other every day until I leave. I should have known that I couldn’t commit to that. I never finished memes like that and I’m fairly certain that I have commitment issues, anyway. So… on to the next half-assed challenged, eh? Haha.)

30 Days of Germany: Day 7 & 8 (May 27-28): Sealife and Olympiapark

2011-05-28T20:20:00.001+02:00

After eleven months of being in Munich, I finally went to Sealife, the local aquarium at Olympiapark. Honestly, it has never been very high up on my list of ‘must-see’ attractions here in Munich but I'm glad that I got to go anyway. I’ve been pretty spoiled in my life when it comes to aquariums because I lived in Monterey, California for five years which is home to one of the world’s largest aquariums – the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (How many times can you use the word aquarium in one sentence?!)

I took one of my six-year-old charges to Sealife after a day of indecision. When you have two twins that can’t make up their mind or agree on what they want to do and throw ridiculous tantrums whenever they don’t get what they want, you have to compromise, right? Discipline, no way! Just split them up and send the au pair off with the one that wants to go the aquarium. At least we got to do the fun part. Eenie and I went to see the fish and Vee went with her mom to play at a friend’s house. We came back from the aquarium and ate mini-pizzas and watched Nanny McPhee. Then my friend Anne came over and practiced for her new face painting gig. We were willing volunteers. We had fun, it was a good Friday. But let’s just say – Sealife does not compare to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This one was wimpy. But it did have sharks and a sea turtle! Win!

May 28

For the second part of this – it’s hard to do this everyday, you’d be surprised, even for me (ha!) – I’m just going to keep it simple and related to SeaLife. Olympiapark, bitches. It’s awesome. It’s one of my favorite places here in Munich. Basically, it translate into exactly what it is in German. The park for the Olympics. Haha. It was constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics which were held in Munich that year. There’s a lot going on at here – not just Olympiapark (which also has a beautiful lake and Olympiaberg!) but the Olympic Stadium, an ice rink, tennis facilities, swimming pools, the Olympic Tower (aka Olympiaturm). There’s a party going on over here! I’ve been to Olympiapark a lot and still go back quite often. I’ve been up to the top of the Olympia Tower twice – there are stunning views of the city from way up there. I’ve been into the stadium once, for a World Cup soccer game that we watched with thousands of other people on a massive big screen TV. I’ve heard U2 play a concert there from my bedroom, the window open and their sound drifting effortlessly across the city to my neighborhood. I’ve enjoyed Tollwood at Olympiapark – an incredible summer music festival. I’ve hiked up Olympiaberg a few times to get pictures and watch the sunset and even to watch my friends learn how to play American football on a blessedly warm and sunny day in November. My favorite thing that I ever did at Olympiapark was Sommerfest last August. Jess and I went there one day by ourselves and just wandered through the midway and had “country fair” food by the lake. Then we returned with our friends a few nights later to enjoy an open air concert and a hot summer night at the aptly named, summer festival. Overall, Olympiapark is beautiful and it’s definitely going to be one of those things about Munich that I’ll miss. But that list could fill a thousand pages at this point. Sigh!

Olympiapark

Sunset off of Olympiaberg

Football lessons at Olympiapark

Sommerfest by night

Tollwood Summer Festival

30 Days of Germany: Day 5 and 6 (May 25-26)–Sweet Treats and Naked People

2011-05-26T23:07:00.001+02:00

Two days in one… yes.

Yesterday my friend Anne and I had some delicious cupcakes that were absolutely delightful. In Germany, they don’t really do cupcakes on a widespread basis. In fact, I don’t even think they make frosting or use sugar in this country. Ha. Every cake that I’ve ever had is just… cake. So, needless to say, I was a happy girl with cupcake in hand. I had two – cookies and cream, with an amazing cream cheese frosting – and a vanilla cupcake with a freaking brown baked inside of the batter. Oh my God, it was like an orgasm in my mouth. Not literally. But you know… cupcake-sugar-deliciousness orgasm. *ahem*

Also, while we enjoyed our cupcakes, naked Europeans joined the sun all around us. Yes, I see leathery saggy boobs and old man penises pretty much everyday. Welcome to Europe!

This is me trying to make a cupcake-orgasm face. I don’t think this is what
my face really looks like during an org… eh, uh…. nevermind.
My dad reads this blog. *facepalm*

Cupcake and a naked lady. Win!

Nakeds!

30 Days of Germany: Day 4 (May 24th)–Four Seasons

2011-05-24T21:20:00.001+02:00

This week I’ve been spending a lot of time outside in the yard with the girls because the weather has been gorgeous. Warm, even hot spring days, blue skies, long hazy nights. Of course, there is springtime in California but it’s not so dramatic since the seasons don’t really change where I live. They just kind of… blend together. And spring is beautiful anywhere, really, but I am definitely going to miss these spring days that I spent in Munich. And just a few months ago… it was winter. Cold, unapologetic winter. And before that – fall. (Oh God, now I sound like Rebecca Black! *facepalm*) Fall here in Munich was breathtaking – I don’t think I’ve ever been more in love with a city as I was with Munich during the fall. And, as usual, before fall was summer – crisp, balanced temperatures in August, hot, muggy days in July, endless amounts of rain in June. It transitioned into fall like clockwork and so on and so forth. You walked outside and just knew that the next season was upon you. It’s not like that in California. We have foggy season, rainy season, and sunshine season. Not necessarily in that order. I will miss the four seasons of Germany, especially at the end of summer and winter, when I’m longing for the colors of fall and the renewal of spring. I love that I was able to spend the whole year here, experiencing each season for myself and documenting it as I went.

June 2010 – Rain!

Mid-summer 2010: Sunshine!

Fall 2010

Winter 2010 – I swear I did not use black and white settings for this shot. Haha.

Winter 2010

Spring 2011

30 Days of Germany: Day 3 (May 23… kind of) Bavarian Food

2011-05-23T22:10:00.001+02:00

Since I didn’t go anywhere important today, I thought I’d feature something different from the day before – Bavarian food! Ever since I had my first traditional Bavarian meal, I’ve been in love. It’s delicious – and they love meat and potatoes and salt and all of the things that go straight to your ass. I’m partial to the pork and kartoffel so when we sat down for dinner yesterday, I read my way through the menu until I found something worthy. Scwhweinbraten. It is a Bavarian pork roast, basically, and it is delicious. When the waitress set my plate down in front of me, I couldn’t stop salivating. It tasted even better than it looked. The dish came with Kartoffelklöße, potato dumplins, and also, wirsing, which was some kind of vegetable, cabbage puree. It, too, was delicious, despite the fact that it looked like spit up baby food. Ha. Around the table there was spargel (white asparagus), saurkraut, saurbraten (another type of pork roast), and spargelsuppe (asparagus soup). We feasted like true Bavarians and enjoyed every single bite. It was delicious. One of the first things that I will do when I get back to California is locate some German/Bavarian restaurants close to home. It is a must at this point! Either that or I’m going to have get some recipes and make it all myself!

Also, I stole some of Eric’s food porn pictures for this post! Danke, darling!

I took this one!

And how could I forget – because a meal in Bavaria isn’t complete without a pint of beer – the rauschbier? This beer is a particular blend for the city of Bamberg and it’s very interesting. It has a smoky, meaty flavor to it and is very rich. We got a round across the table and while most of us finished them off, some of us just couldn’t get through it. Simon had three glasses while Sara passed hers up entirely and I gave the rest of mine to Dieter. It’s definitely an interesting taste but I’m glad that I tried it anyway!

30 Days of Germany: Day 2 (May 22nd)–Bamberg, Germany

2011-05-23T21:47:00.001+02:00

This past weekend my friends and I took a Sunday day trip to Bamberg, Germany. There wasn’t any significant reason as to why we chose that particular city – we just wanted to go somewhere in Bavaria that we hadn’t been before. So, for my second day, I’m going to feature some pictures and travel adventures from our trip to Bamberg.

We met at Hauptbahnhof at 9 am on Sunday morning and the twelve of us split up three Bayern tickets. The traveling menagerie – me, Eric, Nuno, Ana, Dieter, Sara, Anne, Simon, Kiira, Elisa, Florian, and Kaja. Our train left Munich around 10 am so we bought some snacks and beer and we settled in for the three hour train ride to Bamberg. I love train rides – especially when I’m with my friends – so the fact that we had to sit on the train for such a long time was not a big deal to me at all. We listened to each other’s iPods (Backstreet Boys serenades!), played games (between two different iPads, Ana’s phone, and my iPod), drank beer, laughed, talked, gossiped. When we reached Nuremberg, we had to switch to an SBahn and take another hour long train ride into Bamberg. By the time we got on the SBahn, it was already 12:30 and it was HOT. We spent the next 45 minutes on the suburban train sweating and drinking even more beer to beat the heat. But, it was worth it when we got to Bamberg and stumbled off the train – half of us drunk and smiling, having just thoroughly enjoyed our long journey. We ambushed the McDonald’s bathroom and Florian let me sneak into the men’s rest room on his receipt code. Win! Then we journeyed out into the city with no real direction or travel intentions – just a desire to wander around and find stuff that was interesting.

Anne and I with our Helles on the train! It’s not a Bavarian train ride without ‘em!

Our trash can on the SBahn. Party machen!

The city of Bamberg was quaint and absolutely beautiful. It rained for the first hour or so that we were there but that didn’t stop us from enjoying it. I think the gray skies gave the city a bit of a menacing charm – and I got to dance in the rain. No big deal! It’s just water! We wandered from church to church – one of which was located on top of this massive hill with breathtaking views of the city. We took pictures on the numerous bridges that we crossed – Bamberg has the reputation of being called Germany’s Venice, for the rivers and bridges and buildings located on the riverbanks. After the rain and after we emerged from two hours worth of dinner, beer, and good company in a traditional Bamberg restaurant, the city was ridiculously beautiful and we got some great pictures.

Lighting candles in the church – thinking of my ma!

The whole traveling group (from left to right) – Florian, Elisa, Kaja, Sara, me, Anne, Simon (we made him crouch down! ha), Ana, Nuno, Eric, Dieter, and Kiira

We made our way back to the train station just in time to catch a 7:15 train back to Nuremberg. We loaded up on snacks and beer (seriously, we were drinking ALL DAY) and jumped on the train that would take us to our connection train in the next city. We were all so tired but we drank right through it and as the train traveled on – we got sillier, louder, and more ridiculous. I’m sure that anyone who was on the train with us didn’t want to be and by the time we got to Nuremberg, we had more stores and more beer to buy. So for the last three hour train ride that would take us to Munich, most of us managed two to three beers each, and we even got away with playing a deliciously entertaining drinking game that involves whispering predictions of who’s most likely to do what and a lot of irony, laughter, and extreme entertainment. We made it back to Munich at 11:30 and while everyone else decided to go home, Anne and I thought it would be fun to keep the night going and we ended up at our favorite cluster of hostel bars. It turned out to be an epic fail as Anne had her money stolen and I had to borrow 10 EUR from a hotel desk clerk near my house because I didn’t have enough change to pay my taxi driver. Epic fail, lesson learned. But, in the end, it was a travel day success. This trip was one of the best that I’ve taken since living in Germany and is almost up there at the top with our 22-hour adventure to Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein castle in August. With only 27 days left in Munich, it is the days like this that I will hold on to and hope for as my time in Munich continues to dwindle down. I will never forget these days and I consider myself extremely blessed to be able to share them with the people that have made my experience in Munich so much better. Next time, road trip to Berlin! Woo!

30 Days of Germany – Day 1: The English Garden in the Spring

2011-05-21T21:13:00.001+02:00

I’ve said it before on here and I’m fairly certain that I proclaim every time that we gather there but I love Munich’s English Garden. It is my favorite place in the city. I’m heart broken to leave it behind (I do live on the beach though so it’s a fair trade) and I will miss it greatly. In every season, the EG has been faithful to me and it always provides. I’m always taking pictures, of everything, and there’s always something to do – whether it’s ride my bike along the trails, go for a walk, or just lay out in the sun. Right now, in the middle of spring, the EG is giving me every reason to be sad that I am leaving Germany in a month. With all of this wonderful, sunny weather that we’ve been having, my friends and I have been able to meet up at the EG at least once a week and just lay out in the sun and do a whole lot of nothing. It’s incredibly relaxing and I’m working a pretty sweet tan. I hope to come back to the EG again someday in the future. Hopefully sooner than later.

Day 1: May 21
Englischer Garten

Since I am leaving Germany in one month, I thought I’d start a little meme of my own - 30 days of Germany. Each day I will take a picture of something here in Germany that I love or experience and blog about it here. This is my way of saying a proper good-bye to my far-away home.

30 Days

2011-05-20T14:20:00.001+02:00

Today is May 20th. I leave Germany in exactly one month. That’s 30 days, 20 hours, 19 minutes, and 32 seconds until my flight takes off from Frank Joseph Strauss on Monday, 20 June 2011 at 10:30ish in the morning. I have been in Munich for 11 months – 339 days – and since then my entire life has been changed. I don’t know how to put it into words what this experience has done to change me but I just feel it. I’ve learned so much about myself since I first arrived here. I’m going home next month, an entirely different person than when I first left. At the core of me, I am essentially the same but all at once, I am entirely different. How can I go back to my old life and live again after experiencing something like this? It feels as if there is nothing else other than Munich yet I know that is not true. This is just what my life is right now and I love it. I love my life right now more than I’ve ever loved it before. I hope that love and appreciation stays with me as I travel home. I can’t wait to share this experience with everyone back home but, at the same time, I’m going to ache for it with every story that I tell.

Oh geez. I can do this. 30 days to enjoy the last of this experience. 30 ~~wonderful~~ wunderbar days!

52 Things Challenge: #17 and #18 (and Honorable Mentions: #11, #19, #28, #30, #36, and #39)

2011-05-17T09:34:00.001+02:00

I’ve failed at finishing this “52 Things in Munich” bucket list recently and so I need to catch up! I even completed a few of them months ago and never posted the evidence. So… this is my attempt at keeping up with myself!

# 17: Wash your wallet in the Fish Fountain at Marienplatz.

This is, technically, a tradition for Ash Wednesday following Fasching – you are supposed to wash your wallet in the fountain for good fortune. However, Fio and I did it in February (not March) when it was freezing cold and still snowing outside.

#18: Have espresso at Café Tambosi.

Café Tambosi is one of my favorite little café’s in Munich – not because I eat there (I never have!) – but because of it’s location. It’s located in Odeonsplatz and is nestled between the main square and the Hofgarten which neighbors Munich’s historical Residenz. On the street side, Tambosi has great out door seating, which faces Odeonsplatz and the Theatinerkirche across the plaza.

[source]

The back side of Café Tambosi, however, is my favorite part of this quaint little café. In the spring and summer, the outdoor seating of Tambosi is located under a canopy of trees and shade and is neighbored by gorgeous fountains and the beautiful Hofgarten to the right. Apparently, Café Tambosi is famous for it’s delicious espresso and since it was on the list, Fio and I decided to try it. I don’t really like espresso (or coffee for that matter) so I wasn’t that impressed but it was nice to finally sit inside and see what the hype was about. Hopefully I can try the food and other drinks before I leave!

Fio and her espresso

Nevermind my stupid hair or my unimpressed expression. lol

Now for some Honorable Mentions….

#11: Wash your own Maßkrug. Which is German for “a really big stein.” You know… the liters of beer that I’m so used to drinking now. Well, sometimes, you have to wash them yourself. I did this when I went to the Hirschgarten biergarten with my American friends Lauren and Mikell for a 4th of July picnic. You don’t have to do it everywhere but it was kind of cool to be responsible for yourself. I liked it! Also, Helen stole for me a Maßkrug once before and I wash it in the dish washer all the time. So, technically, I was my own Maßkrug quite often!

#19: Stroll through the Viktualienmarkt early in the morning. I’ve done this twice, I think. Last summer, on two different occaisions, I stayed over at my friends apartment because he lived close to the city center and I often missed my train late at night. He was always generous enough to offer me a place to sleep until the trains started running again. Often, in these cases, I would get up and leave early in the morning to catch the morning train and in order to get to the train station, I had to stroll through Viktualienmarkt and at least once, I did this at 5 o’clock in the morning. It was beautiful and so serene. All of the vendors were just opening up their standls and the city was still quiet and absent of crowds.

[source]

#28: Tell someone off for standing on the wrong side on the escalator. I haven’t really done this – at least not to a stranger. But whenever someone comes to visit me who is new to Munich, you better believe that I give them a hard time about it. Haha. The left side is for passing only.

#30: Get a headache and blame the “Föhn.” I’m doing this right now actually. I’ve had a head ache for the last two days and since I can’t think of any other explanation (allergies? sinuses? ~~stress?~~ lack of sleep?), I’m just going to blame it on the Föhn.

When a Munich local gets a headache, it’s more often than not the Föhn that takes the blame. This is a hot wind blows up over the Alps from Italy and known for producing clear skies and cranky moods.

#36: Dance at the Kockerlball. I didn’t do this… but Jessica did! And since she is the one who first gave me this list and suggested I knock it out, I figured it was only right that I mention her here. She went with our friend Elli, really early in the morning (it’s tradition for it to start as early as 5 am!) and enjoyed good beer and good German culture at the Kockerlball at the Chinese Tower this past summer.

Elli and Jess with a traditional Bavarian man at Kockerlball

Thanks, Jess for letting me steal your pictures (unknowingly, too! Ha!)

#39: Count the steps of the “Alte Peter.” I haven’t officially counted the amount of steps that take you to the top of Alte Peter in Marienplatz but I’ve climbed them three times now. There are over 300 steps. So, techinically, I’ve “counted/climbed” more than 900 steps throughout all of my journeys to the top of the kirche. AND I’ve climbed to the top of the Dom in Cologne which is 500 something steps. Winning!

My favorite view from the top of Alte Peter

It’s always nice to be up there on a beautiful, clear day!

A Final Weekend at Fruhlingsfest, Late Nights, Impending Endings, Employment Prospects, and the Joy of Being an Au Pair

2011-05-16T12:02:00.001+02:00

This past weekend I went for a second round at Fruhlingsfest and I had so much fun. Beer festivals are one of the things that I will miss the most about Munich. And there are a lot of things that I will miss but beer festivals are definitely up there at the top of the list. I like it much better than Oktoberfest because there are less people and more available tables, faster service, etc etc. We had a table right up front, center stage to the band that played all night long. We danced and sang along and had a merry time, right up until they closed and kicked us all out. And I practiced great self control. It was my pay day and I only bought two beers. Instead of five like I did the previous weekend. After the festival, a few of us braved the rain and decided to go clubbing. We ended up at Cord, a club that plays some great indie music and even though I paid 6 EUR for the cover, I only stayed about an hour or so before I left to catch the last train home. I was ridiculously tired from all of the dancing that I had been doing that day. I made it home by 2:30, soaking wet and cold, took a long, late night bath, and then went to bed close to 4 am. The night before that, I'd stayed up until about the same time, drunk off of Friday the 13th festivities and two or so bottles of wine. Last night, on Sunday, I stayed out with friends at a shisha bar until 2 a.m. I definitely need to make this week one of early nights and catch up a bit. I'm starting to feel ill from only sleeping 4 to 5 hours every night. Personal challenge accepted! Unless I have plans (aka Shamrock's karaoke) I will be in bed at 10:30 and lights out by 11 most nights this week. Haha. We'll see how well this goes!

Happy German girl at the festival!

They had these lit up while they played “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash

Full Monty show on the Augustiner stage!

Q62, Shisha bar!

Paul taught me this trick and Cris tagged me in this photo. Thanks Cris!

Yesterday (the 15th) was the one-month mark to the end of my au pair contract. On June 15th, I am officially done being an au pair and I will be set free for five final says in Munich, unemployed and with approximately 225 EUR in hand. My friends and I have planned an epic going away slash birthday party for a collective few of us and that happens two days before I board my plane back to California. It will be a great party and I'll probably have a few drunken cries through most of it. I don't have a lot of pocket money (thanks Rome!) for the remainder of my time here so I'm limited in what I can do for the rest of my time here but I'm hoping to go to Berlin in June to visit my friend Alison and then she'll come to Munich and visit me here. It'll be good to see her before I leave, too, since she's become my best friend from the days working as a camp counselor. I have a lot of things to organize, too, as far as packing is concerned. I want to get rid of a lot of it - so many of my clothes got ruined by the damn washer and dryer and the shitty hard water in Germany so I'm going to throw most of them away. It still feels like I'll never get it all home again. Ah! I can't believe I have to leave this place... it feels impossible. It reminds me of the quote from Eat, Pray, Love:

“The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying;
the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.”

I want to go home – God, do I want that. I miss my mom and I want to meet the dog that she bought to fill the void in her heart after I left. I don’t want to live with this family anymore – or any family, for that matter. I want to spent five hours in Target. I want to take peoples of people in Wal-Mart. I want to buy crossaints and muffins and pizza at Costco. I want to go to all my favorite college bars with my friends from home. I want to lay on the beach for eight hour straight. I want to see my nephews and my sister, Christy. I want to visit my family in Montana. I want to sit down and tell my grandma all about my year abroad. I want to drive around in my car for hours and hours and turn the music up really loud and roll all the windows down. I want to get my hair cut and colored and get a manicure and pedicure and have my eyebrows waxed. I want to have a wallet full of American bills and I want to pay tax again and use my debit card everywhere I go. I want to be a California girl again.

But I want to be a German girl, too. I want to stay in Munich. I want everyone that I love in Munich to stay here too. I want to sit at a shisha bar for six hours and laugh and gossip and take pictures. I want to go to beer festivals every season and dance to music that I can’t understand but love anyway. I want to spend every sunny Saturday in the English Gardens drinking beer and catching a Frisbee and singing along to Florian’s ukulele. I want to sing karaoke at Shamrock’s every Tuesday night. I want to eat Bavarian food and have sausages and leberkase available to me on every corner. I want to buy Bayern tickets and take trains to random German towns all over Bavaria. I want to drink Augustiner every day. I want to be German forever.

I’m completely torn between the two places. In the end, I am going home, that is just the way that it is and I am okay with that. but I am going to miss Munich so much. Not only will I miss all of the wonderful friends that I’ve made here but I’m going to miss the city and the culture, the food, the memories that I had while I was living here. Hell, I might even miss the kids. Haha. It’s all coming to end so much faster than I would like. I am going to be so sad to leave here. It really does feel impossible.

But, the good news is that I have a job lined up at home that I am 98% decided upon. Between the eight families that have contacted me about working for them, only two of them have really done any follow through. I’ve been discussing offers and options, back and forth, between both of them and I think that I am decided on the one that I want. They’ve offered me the better package and the most information concerning schedules, salaries, benefits, expectations, etc, etc. Plus, the one that I want is more reasonable as far as finances are concerned and it gives me more room to rebuild my life and get back on my feet. Also, it would mean that I would be living with my mom in Morro Bay and that I wouldn’t be going back to Monterey. I’ve been thinking about living there and in the end it’s more practical for me to live with my mom for the next phase of my life and then I can work towards moving back to Monterey with better financial results. Anyway, the job is great and if I decide to take it, I’ll give more details about it but for now, we’ll just leave it in a state of indecision. I should know by the end of the week what choice I will make once they give me official offers or employment that I can either turn down or accept. I will let you know, dear readers!

Speaking of being a nanny (or something of the sort), I had a lot of fun with the girls this past Friday while I was babysitting. We went to a playground after they came home from school and we played in the sunshine and put flowers in our hair. I’ve been teaching myself how to braid so I invented this whole new hairstyle on the spot and the girls each ended up with a super cool head of hair. Au pair Hezzah for the win!

My little cuties

Super Nanny At Your Service

2011-05-13T21:18:00.001+02:00

(Since Blogger has been acting like a freak for the last day or so and deleted this post, I am putting it up again. Danke.)

I have been a nanny/babysitter/au-pair/what-have-you for ten years now. Since I was 14, people have been paying me to take care of their children. And, if you ask any of them, I do a damn good job. I have ten year olds that want to be my friend on Facebook because they list me in their Top 5 best friends. I have nine year olds who beg their parents to take me on their family vacations just because they will miss me too much when they’re gone. It’s a rough life, really. But somebody has to do it. And it might as well be me.

Some people think I’m crazy for wanting to go into yet another nanny position after the year that I’ve spent with the Frau and her two delightful children (okay, they really are cute some of the time!). And with a college degree and with my credentials, shouldn’t I want to have a career? Yeah, probably. And someday, I’ll do that. First, I want to go back to school and get even more credentials and make myself even more desirable and educated. But, while I’m making that plan, I’m going to keep nannying. And you know why? Because I like to do it, I love working with kids, and it’s really good money with great personal reward. So, with that being said, as I began job hunting for employment in California over the last few weeks, you better believe that I put out some nanny ads between my hometown, Morro Bay, and my dream-town, Monterey.

And damn, I’ve never had so many hits! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight families have emailed me over the last week and a half, admitting their interest. I have sent my resume to all seven of them and have done extensive follow through with three. Two years ago when I was playing this same game, back when I was still in college and had never worked abroad, and was working solely off of local care experience, I got about two hits – one of which I ended up taking (out of reluctance at first, because of salary, but it ended up being the most heart-rewarding nanny job I’ve had thus far). A degree in education and a year abroad have definitely improved my standing as a potential nanny and I feel that I have the right credentials and experiences to be a big game player in the competitive nanny race that seems to grip central coast California. That makes me feel good because I have earned that standing.

I am very excited to have a job already set up when I return home. I didn’t want to have to deal with jet lag, visiting friends and family, reverse culture shock, possible depression (I will miss Munich so much!), and lack of money all while I was also searching for a job. It takes a huge load off of my shoulders to know that I am on that path and that my transition back into my California life will not be as stressful as I’d first thought it might be. You may not agree with me when I say that I am using my degree and my education when I work as a nanny but, trust me, I am. When you’ve studied child development as thoroughly as I have, parents like that and they want you for that reason. And I get real world practice and observation of the things that I studied. Therefore, I don’t feel like my working as a nanny for a few more years is a waste of my time or my degree.

It’s fulfilling and it’s what I want to do, it’s where my heart is when I think of work. It’s the most rewarding thing that I could do for myself and for a family in need. So, here’s to the final weeks of my job search, I hope it ends as well as it has begun!

An Ode to the Englischer Garten, German Churches, Good Friends, and the Eventual End of an Epic Adventure

2011-05-11T16:36:00.001+02:00

It’s hard to believe that winter ever existed here in Munich. I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to brave the cold, snowy weather for nearly four months time. The weather, since early April, has been absolutely beautiful. It’s been warm, sometimes even hot, and the skies have been an endless blue. There have been a few rainy days but not many and even then, they are accompanied by thunderstorms and how can I complain about that? I love thunderstorms. One thing about spring that I don’t like – hay fever. Boo to sneezing and itchy, red eyes!

With this glorious weather, I’ve been able to spend a lot of time in the English Gardens, too, which, if you will remember, is my favorite place in Munich. I’ll find any and every excuse to ride my bike through there and lucky for me, I’ve had a lot of them lately because I couldn’t afford to buy a train ticket for May. So I’ve been riding my bike everywhere and I usually will use the EG as a peaceful passage between home and the city center. This, of course, is wonderful because of all of the beautiful trees and pathways and things to look at. I am still in awe of this park – I love it so much.

I wish I could live here forever.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time with my friends at the EG, too. We’ll meet up on sunny Saturdays or even during the week if we’re available and we just lay out in the sun with books, guitars, beer, what have you. Sometimes I just take a book and go lay out by myself in the north end of the Gardens near my house. It’s ridiculously quiet and unpopulated and it kind of makes you feel small and insignificant in a really fantastic kind of way. I love it. Another thing that recently made me feel small and insignificant but with a grand gesture – the church at Ludwig Maximillian University. It was stunning. I hadn’t been into a church in Munich since the winter so it was extremely humbling to be reminded on their beauty and majesty.

I’ve been walking by this church for eleven months now and I don’t know WHY it never occurred to me to walk in. But last week, as I was waiting to meet Jennie, I thought, “What the hell?” and just wandered inside. A strange kind of fear came over me as I walked in, almost as if I were terrified of the massiveness of the church it self. A calm settled over me and I just stared in awe, completely transfixed. The church was so beautiful. Also, I’ve gotten into the habit of lighting candles for my mom whenever I walk into one. Thinking of you, ma!

I’ve been mentioning her a lot lately and yes, Jennie, is back in Munich! I first met her during our epic 22-hour trip to Neuschwanstein that she managed to narrowly escape. She went back to Canada in early September to finish law school and now she is back in Munich after eight months. It’s been nice having her back – I can’t wait until we start cooking and having fancy dinner parties at her sweet apartment. And all of the conversations! The two of us could talk all day long. And it’s good to have the girl back purely for her love for karaoke! She’s a karaoke fiend and that is always appreciated around these parts with how often we go to the karaoke bar. Also back to Munich after nearly three months of being away, is my darling Eric who I missed ever so much. Of course, all the regular cast members are still around and I’m loving every minute of my life here because of it. I have such wonderful friends – new and old – and I have been so blessed this year to have them! And you want to know something really cool? Tiago is coming to visit me in California, less than a week after I get home! He’s one of my best friends here and it’s obvious that he can’t live without me. Haha. So I’m looking forward to showing him the sunny side of America and introducing him to my friends back home – which will be a weird transition. How do I blend one totally different part of my life with another? Of course, it’s effortless but I just can’t wrap my mind around it. Weird!

Me and Tiago at a Studentstadt party, last Wednesday

I’ve been working a lot this spring – which I may have already mentioned – and although it can be frustrating for my social schedule, it’s still nice to be home every once in a while. I’ve been reading a lot and have made it through three or four books in the last month or two. I’ve challenged myself to read 25 books this year, before my 25th birthday and so far I’m at 20% progress. I’ve also been able to catch up on my blogs (thank God!) and do a little bit of job searching back home… which has been a huge success thus far but more on that later. ;) Also, I sleep a lot, spend a lot of time outside, Facebook more than I should, and spend more time with the girls that I care for (which isn’t always nice but we all have our bad days, right?). Hopefully I get to make the most of these last five weeks and that my host-mom and I don’t butt heads too much. It would definitely make for an interesting last few weeks if I had to stay in 4 to 5 nights every week. There’s not very much time left!

The reality is that I leave Munich for California on June 20th. I finish my au pair contract exactly five weeks from today. Five weeks ago from today, I was planning my trip to Rome with Brenna and was just getting over the excitement of Starkbierfest. That feels as if it were just days behind me – not five weeks. It’s hard to imagine that in two months I will be in California again. I can’t imagine going back to my old life. Of course, it will be different but I feel like I’ve changed so much, like I won’t fit inside of California anymore, like every part of me will just want to bust free and come back here. Ah, it’s going to be a hard transition, I won’t expect it to be easy. But, for now, I will enjoy every minute that it presented to me here and I will not think too much about what lies ahead on the other side of the world. It’s not a bad thing to go home but it’s not easy to walk away from this year abroad either. I am looking forward to being with my friends and family again but I know that I will ache for Munich and it will take a long time to stop missing the life that I lived here.

But, alas… the show must go on.

The 50 Most Important Landmarks of the World

2011-05-11T09:10:00.001+02:00

I was Stumbling around this morning and came across this link – 50 of the world’s most important and well known landmarks. I was kind of disappointed in how many of them I haven’t actually heard of but was also surprised to find that I’ve been to a few of them! Not many… but I hadn’t seen any of them this time last year! Check out the link and comment, how many of these have you been to?

The 50 Most Important Landmarks of the World

I’ve been to…

Big Ben, London
January 2011

Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria
August 2010

St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
April 2011

Trevi Fountain, Rome
April 2011

I’d love to travel to all of these landmarks someday, of course, but if I could pick five places to visit to see five of these landmarks, I’d choose:

The Taj Mahal, India

Lochness, Scotland

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

Mont St Michel, France

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Frühlingsfest: Bavaria’s Spring Alternative to Oktoberfest

2011-05-10T11:04:00.001+02:00

I don’t think I would love Bavaria as much as I do if it wasn’t home to so many wonderful beer festivals. I’ve been to a few since I’ve arrived here – Oktoberfest, obviously and Starkbierfest – both interesting and unique in their own special ways. Oktoberfest is world famous and is absolutely worth visiting at least once in your life if you are a beer enthusiast and can throw back a few liters of beer on any given day. Starkbierfest (which means strong beer in English) was unique in its merchandise – beer that is loaded with carbs and a lot of potential to get you really wasted. I was lucky enough to attend both of these beer festivals (sadly I never went to the Dachau Volksfest and will miss it this summer) and, even better, I was able to attend in my tracht wear (aka dirndl) – a traditional Bavarian dress!

This past weekend, I rocked my dirndl once again and headed out to join my friends for a day of beer and sunshine at this year’s Frühlingsfest celebration. I was expecting something along the lines of Oktoberfest size but I was met with a much smaller reality. Frühlingsfest boasts only two beer tents – Augustiner and Hippodrom – and takes up about 2/8 of the space that Oktoberfest occupied. (I only fully realized this when I was ascending the crest of the Wasserbahn (log ride) and could see the grounds of Theresienwiese laid out below us.) The festival includes a midway and carnival rides and tons and tons of delicious food and drink.

Upon arrival, my friends and I first decided to have a good old fashioned race down the massive slide. I was overconfident that I would win and definitely did not. My fellow American friend, Dieter, managed to beat both Jennie and I in a race back to ground level. This carnival slide was very sophisticated – with nine slide lanes, furry bottomed slide blankets, and an escalator that took you to the top. German’s are so efficient!

Dieter in the lead, me taking second place, and Jennie taking up the rear.

Me and Jennie, reunited!

After our epic slide race, we decided to try the beer tents and were met with great surprise. They were practically empty. After attending Oktoberfest, I expected it to be much of the same frenzied madness but there was no such chaos. In fact, we left the first beer tent, Augustiner, to see if the second one, the Hippodrom, was more lively or less family friendly. It was pretty much at the same level of excitement and so we settled there anyway, intent on visiting the second beer tent later. The Hippodrom is famous during Oktoberfest for being the posh, celebrity-favorited beer tent and, to be honest, it was quite fancy. The decorations were really ornate and the beer, of Spaten variety, was crisp and delicious (unlike Augustiner which we later tasted and found to be extremely flat). We enjoyed each other’s company and our beers for the first hour or so as more of our friends trickled in and joined us. After a while, Jennie left to wander the grounds and then Dieter and I shortly followed – and got 1/2 meter long bratwurst on the way.

Inside the beer tent

Me and my German friend, Florian, who I first met when he was
dressed as a convincing Michael Jackson for Fasching back in March

After regrouping with Jennie, we headed back to the Hippodrom to meet with everyone else but found them all leaving the tent as we arrived. We all decided to go on some of our favorite rides and then would reconvene and go to Augustiner. Ana, Dieter, Candice, Jennie, and I went on the Super Skooter bumper cars and banged our knees up pretty bad. We took a few decent hits on that one. After the ride, we met up with everyone else and managed to get back to the Augustiner beer tent. And so began the night’s epic revelry.

Me and Nuno, my darling Portuguese man-friend

Drinking games at the table

Bavarian child dancers

Augustiner beer tent

After one of our friends got kicked out of the beer tent for jumping between tables (??) we decided to break things up and go on some more rides. We had managed to accumulate some cheap beer, food, and ride tickets from the Bavarian dancer children and so we had a lot of sweet deals. We took the ride passes and ventured back to the Midway where we drunkenly rode on some pretty crazy spinning machines and then ate more food.

Janick, me, and Dieter on the Top Spin

We’re pretty much wiped out at this point. haha.

We finished the night with our beer and 1/2 hendl (chicken!) coupons at Hippodrom (where Amy and I bonded over girl time in the bathroom) and then we went back to Augustiner where the music was better and our friends were more plentiful. We danced all night long, until they kicked us out at closing, and then we met a Bavarian Captain America in the midway. We all went to our respective homes after that and said good night to a perfect beer festival celebration. I hope I can afford to go again!

It amazes me, still, to find that I am constantly falling in love with Germany and the life that I live here. I’m always making new friends (and good ones, at that!) and I’m waking up every morning excited to live my life. There were times, as I grew up and moved on through my life, that I wondered when I would feel that absolute peace with my life and myself and for the first time in… maybe forever… I’ve found that feeling and I love it. It’s going to be so hard to leave Munich next month. I know that I am going to cry and be an emotional mess. How do I walk away from this year of my life? I have no idea at this point! I don’t want to!

Garmisch, Again and the Blessed Comfort of Family in a Far Away Place

2011-05-09T23:49:00.001+02:00

This blog can’t keep up with real life! I am not giving it any justice. I have so many things I want to write about and then I find that I have all the time in the world to write it down but I just… don’t. I get distracted. I get going on StumbleUpon. I start chatting on FB. I pick up my book. I clean my bathroom. Seriously. I scrub the toilet instead. It’s pathetic. Anyway, I’m going to start with my recent trip down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where I visited my Quasi-Mom, Christina, and my German Oma, Kathe for the weekend.

In case you missed the memo the first few times that I talked about it – everyone in Christina’s family is pretty much mine, too. Neither one of us would have ever guessed that back in the fall of 2007, when she hired me to work at her candle store, that 3 1/2 years later, I would be hanging out with every member of her family in their motherland. I worked for Christina as both a candle store employee and as the babysitter for her adorable grand-daughter, Andrea, up until the summer of last year and became extremely close to her in the process. Christina and her husband, Barrie, have been like surrogate parents to me while I was living away from home and going to school and they have gone out of their way most of the time to take care of me. (Thank you for all of the tire changes, broken car door repairs, and home-cooked meals!) They’re wonderful! Christina’s older sister, Susie, I met through the family (she visited me in Munich during Oktoberfest!) as well and their mother, Kathe, who I met whenever she was staying in California and then, formally, after I’d found out that I would be going to Germany. More recently, I’ve become friends with Christina’s son, Dustin, as well, because he visited Munich back in February. I feel like he’s my big brother now, I love it! And, of course, there’s Drea in there, too. I’m her “Hairy” and I find myself missing her, too! Needless to say, I have been incredibly blessed with the comforts and consolation of family while I’ve been here in Europe and I couldn’t imagine how my experience here would have been different had that touch of familiarity been absent.

With that being said, Kathe lives here in Bavaria, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so I have been visiting her a lot since I’ve arrived here in Germany. I now have pictures of Garmisch through the seasons. It’s been really cool, this little town is so beautiful and it has so much stuff to do and look at. This time around, however, I went there to see Christina who I hadn’t seen since I’d left California last June. Kathe and Christina picked me up at my house, met my host-mom and the girls, and then we drove from Munich to G-Pa, which was about an hour’s drive. It was nice to catch up with her gossip a little bit, which we’re soooo good at. When we got to Garmisch, we stopped first at the commissary, since Kathe works for the Army. I stocked up on American goodies – macaroni and cheese, blueberry bagels, Ranch dressing, French’s mustard, an industrial size bottle of Treseme conditioner, Ruffles Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. Oh man, I love cheating on German culture sometimes! After our shopping excursion, Christina and I went into the heart of the city and had a delicious Bavarian dinner – schnitzel for everyone (I ate mine and half of hers! D’oh!) – and we had beers and walked home. It was a beautiful twilight!

Garmisch-Partenkirchen after dark

Back at Kathe’s house we had a Skype video call with Barrie, Dustin, and Andrea and we all got an earful from that little chatterbox. She is getting so big and is talking so much since the last time that I saw her and I couldn’t stop laughing at the cute things that just came out of her mouth. It’ll be nice to play with her again – I hope she’s missing me! It was nice to see Barrie and Dustin, too, of course. We all went to bed after that and woke up slowly in the morning. After breakfast Christina and I decided to go to Ludwig’s Schloss Linderhof. I’ve been to nearly all of King Ludwig’s castles now! I feel accomplished. Linderhof was beautiful – and it’s the only castle that he ever fully completed (and it’s one of the smallest!). He didn’t even finish the Disney castle. Linderhof comes with Ludwig’s grotto and so that was really interesting to see. It’s the largest man-made cave in Europe, by the way. It was raining and it was a bit cold but I enjoyed the scenery and the castle itself and Christina and I had fun just hanging out, the two of us.

Mountain scenery from the path to Linderhof
I absolutely love this country! How can I ever leave?!

Schloss Linderhof

The view from the front side of Linderhof

Me with Neptune’s fountain

Painting in the grotto where Ludwig present Wagner’s opera

The castle, down below

We finished touring Linderhof and were back in G-Pa by 3 o’clock so we decided to walk into the city and check out the street market that was going on. The walk to the city is picturesque and there is a little field with about six sheep in it and they wear cow bells on their necks so you always know if they’re coming. We would stop and talk to them, pet them, and feed them dandelions. They were adorable! The market itself was so cute – very small town German and just adorable. And so many good aromas coming from all that delicious food. Christina and I ended up eating the 1/2 meter bratwursts and taste testing all kinds of yummy foods. It was a good way to pass through the afternoon and once we return home – we made a plan to send me back to Munich and Christina took me to the train station. We said our good-byes and then I settled in for the 90 minute train ride back into the city. I read my book the entire time (I’m in love with Lisa Gardner’s thrillers!) and snacked on all of my guilty pleasure American food the whole time!

Ultimately, it was a great weekend in Garmisch and I had so much fun with Christina – I really had missed her a lot and I can’t wait to spend more time with her once I’m back in California NEXT MONTH. Geez. It’s gone by so fast. Holy cow.

Next up on my blog-frenzy-agenda…

The joys of spring and all that it brings – beer festivals, warm weather, sunburns, hay fever, bugs, an over abundance of work, and all kinds of other stuff.
My job hunt back in California and how awesome I am as the future Mary Poppins.
Books, books, books… and my GoodReads.com literary goal!
Resuming my “52 Things in Munich” bucket list – I’m so behind!
My thoughts and reflections on the last six weeks of the best year of my life. Can I even put it into words?!

This (not so) new German girl is finding out that
home really is where the heart is.

When In Rome: Easter Vacation (April 21st) Part 4

2011-05-09T22:27:00.001+02:00

(I forgot to post this last piece! Sorry! It’s out of order now. Haha. Oh well. ENJOY!)

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the last piece of the adventure – documenting mine and Brenna’s last day in Rome, our travels, back to Munich, and my final thoughts and reflections on the whole trip.

After our long day in Naples, Brenna and I had one full day left to go out an explore Rome and we had a few things left on our list to cross out before we left. We took our time and did a lot of walking and getting lost and map reading. Neither one of us had any cash left so we were broke, irritable, and frustrated with our lack of coordination in the map department but in the end, we managed to have a pretty good day and we saw some really cool stuff. We walked straight from the Flaminio train station to Piazza Popolo and then on through Villa Borguese. After that, we managed to find the Spanish Steps and then from there we got to the most ancient basilica in the world, Saint Giovanni of Laterano (or something like that, ha). From there we walked the streets of Rome to the Terme di Caracalla, the ancient ruins of an old public bath building. Afterwards we went to a stupid crypt that was super boring and by that point is was nearly 5 pm and we were cranky and exhausted. LOL So, instead of staying in the city all night to meet some friends from Munich who were flying in, we decided to go back to our hostel for dinner and a night in since we had to catch an airport shuttle at 4 am. We ended up staying at the hostel for dinner and drinks and just never went to bed at all. Haha. We met new friends and hung out with old friends and generally made it a worthy finale to our much needed Easter vacation.

The gate to Piazza Popolo

Piazza Popolo

Villa Borguese

Spanish Steps

Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano
The oldest church in the world!

Terme di Caracalla

One last artsy picture of the Colloseum

Brenna’s naked eating… tomatoes on bread? I forget what it’s called.

Real Italian penne pasta!

Me and my “hostel” buddies, Michelle and Brittany

Happy to be home but sad to leave Rome :(

Pardon my crappy blog content for this update but I’m so far removed from this vacation now that I’m back in Munich but hey… Brenna and I had fun. It was the kind of vacation that we needed, we were desperate for a week like that. We both depleted all of our money and then some and we didn’t get to eat nearly as much Italian food as we would have liked to but it was worth every minute, regardless. No regrets! And I can officially say I’ve been to Italy, a country I’ve been lusting after since I was a teenager. Vacation accomplished!

I Have Not Forgotten About You–Resuming Life in Munich and the Daze of Spring

2011-05-02T09:31:00.001+02:00

With all this talk of my Italian vacation, my life in Munich has kind of been overshadowed and I haven’t really been giving it much justice, have I? I am down to seven weeks here and the thought of that blows my mind. I have been having a horrible time balancing it out, too. I want to be home but I want to be here. I can’t keep myself from being in both places and, for a while there, the homesickness was eating me alive and turning me into an emotional mess. I think I’ve pushed past it though, I’m feeling better and more balanced. I’m not missing the days of vacation and I have so much to look forward to over the next few months and so things are good. All is well with this German girl. :)

The last week went easy on me, where both work and my social life were concerned. The girls were not in school so they had the week off and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn’t have to work until 3 pm everyday of the week. We watched a lot of movies (Nana is absolutely terrified of Tangled, next time I will let her watch it in German to take the edge off), played a lot of Angry Birds (the six year olds have surpassed me on the levels), and ate a lot of pasta (what else is new?). The weather was beautiful so my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the sun either at the English Gardens or BBQing at the Isar. Munich in the spring is absolutely stunning – the trees have all turned green and are flourishing with the rain and sunshine. Lilacs are blooming (my favorite!!), birds are singing, the sun is shining. Everyone here is happy!

Down at the Isar with friends

Sunset on the Isar

Bruno Mars in Munich?!?!?

Lilacs in a Bavarian approved vase

A little bit of home has found its way to Germany, too – my good friend, Christina, who I used to work for in Monterey, has come to Germany to visit her mom, Kathe, who I have mentioned before in this blog. I went to Garmisch this past weekend to visit her and had such a relaxing weekend full of family, food, and much needed relaxation. I will make a separate post about the weekend, of course, but for now, let’s just say it was incredibly wonderful to see her and even though I had to say hello and goodbye to a piece of home, I was grateful to have her here! Hopefully I get to see her again before she leaves.

On that note, darling Jennie is returning to Munich today! If you haven’t read her blog, Too Hard to Find a URL, go do it. She’s witty and intelligent and Canadian so obviously she’s worth knowing. I met her last summer, here in Munich, and she’s returning now for an internship at a law firm here in Munich so I’m excited to have her back here while I enjoy my last few weeks in Munich. I am going to meet her at her new apartment in a few hours, too! Fresh off the airplane!

Now that Easter vacation is over, it’s back to regular scheduled programming. The girls are back in school, the Frau is filling up her spring social calendar, I am back to being overworked, and life goes on. For seven more weeks (to the day), I will live my German life to the fullest possible extent. Frühlingsfest commenced on Friday so I hope to take advantage of that soon (but more on that later!) and it is now officially May! This time last year I was polishing off my Capstone project and presentation, preparing for graduation, leaving most of my jobs, and getting ready to move out of my apartment. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since then or that I’m even this close to the end of my experience here in Germany. Sometimes, especially now with the spring weather and the nostalgic scents of the season, it feels like I just got here. Hopefully, I can make the best of my remaining time and leave Munich with a heavy but happy heart.

When In Rome: Easter Vacation (April 20th) Part 3

2011-04-30T14:20:00.001+02:00

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the third part of my vacation, which includes a day trip to Naples and Pompeii and plenty of complaints about Rome's horrible public transport.

Before we even got to Rome (and, honestly, before I had even signed on as Brenna’s travel companion) a trip to Naples and Pompeii was on the agenda. How could we not visit, with such a cool city and historical site so close to the city? We decided to go on Monday – mid week – so that we could spend the first few days in the city getting used to the trains and transport of Rome since we’d have to catch a 3 hour train to Naples. The night before, at the hostel bar, we had befriended some fellow travelers and so when we ran into them on the commuter train into Rome the following morning, they expressed interest in tagging along to Naples. Kait and Larissa were going to enjoy the trip with us. They were studying abroad in Ireland and had come to Rome for vacation, much like Brenna and I. We got a long really well with both of them. Four American girls in Italy! Que bella!

Admittedly, we woke up late that day – my alarm didn’t go off – and so we didn’t get into Rome until nearly ten o’clock and had a 10:50 train to catch that would take us to Naples. We managed to sort through the madness at Termini station and purchased our tickets (10,50 EUR) and then rushed off to our train. Unfortunately, it was completely packed and we had nowhere to sit so for the first 30-45 minutes of the journey we had to stand up in the aisles until seats became available to us. The Italian countryside that passed by us outside was absolutely beautiful. As we left Rome there were still ancient ruins to be seen and once we got further south – the ocean! It was beautiful and it reminded me so much of home to see the shore out the window of the train. I felt as if I were just driving along the coast in Pismo Beach or Santa Barbara and I felt a slight ache for California. It didn’t last long because, HELLO, I was in frickin’ Italy!

Our train arrived in Naples at about 12:30 and from there – we had to figure out a plan. We knew that we wanted to try for the “world’s greatest pizza.” Or so they say. There was a rumor going around, mostly from Eat, Pray, Love fame and from a friend’s suggestion that we could find the best pizza of our life in this little pizzeria called Da Michele. We had Google map directions on how to get there but that ends up being a great laugh when compared with the crazy, directionless streets of Italy that never seem to have street signs anywhere. We asked a woman at the train station, to no avail. We asked a woman at another train station (one which we’d actually have to go to later in the day) after we got lost with the first set of directions given to us. After that, we got lost again. So we asked a man on the street who spoke no English. But I knew Spanish well enough to translate between the two languages to understand that he kept saying, “second left, second left.” We made it to the street that we wanted to be on but were then still confused so we asked a man in a shop who told us we were very close. And we finally found it – tucked inside of a small Italian street and filled to the brim with eager customers. They were spilling out the door and standing on the street, waiting for tables inside the tiny restaurant.

The street where we found the pizzeria (which is to the left)

Nothing all together spectacular, eh?

Brenna, Kait, Larissa, and I had to figure out what the hell we were supposed to do – which was pay for our pizzas, to-go, and then wait for them to be made. The cool part was that we got to stand there and watch it happen. The kitchen was absolutely TINY but they were all so efficient. They had to be with the crowd that waited outside and the packed house that they had to cater to. One man made the pizzas and then another loaded them into the oven – which you could see straight through into it’s belly. There were about ten pizzas in there at a time, cooking over the flames. There were pictures put up from Julia Robert’s scenes in Eat Pray Love because she actually filmed the pizza scene in their restaurant since it is the same restaurant that the author visited and wrote about in her book. We waited at least ten to fifteen minutes for our pizzas – which were only 4 EUR each. Once we had them, we left because there was no way we were waiting any longer and we still had to catch a train to Pompeii.

Pizzas in hand, we walked back to the smaller train station that we’d found on accident earlier in the day and found out when we could jump a train to Pompeii. A train would be leaving at 3:10, in twenty or so minutes. We bought our return tickets – 6 EUR – and then were accosted by Italian homeless people who wanted our pizza. We ditched them to sit in the stations tiny restaurant and eat our pizzas. We bought drinks there so we could actually get away with it and then we proceeded to shovel pizza into our mouths. It was cold, since we’d spent fifteen or so minutes trying to get back to the train station, but it was still good. It wasn’t the best pizza I’ve ever had, not by a long shot but it was pretty tasty.

The train ride to Pompeii was little more than 30 minutes but we had a strict time line to keep since we had to worry about a 3 hour train ride into Rome and the craptastic time limits of Rome’s public transport. We got to Pompeii and paid 11 EUR for admission into the ancient ruins and then spent 45 minutes wandering about the massive archeological site. Pompeii, as most already know, is famous for having been completely buried in volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius. We didn’t manage to see even half of the site because of time limits but what we did see was breathtaking. I wish we had stumbled upon more of the preserved bodies and stuff but we missed out on a lot of that. We explored the side streets and alleyways and saw what we could in the time that we had. It was worth every second, regardless!

Me, Kait, Larissa, and Brenna at Pompeii

Mount Vesuvius in the distance

Stray dogs in Pompeii – you can adopt them, too!

After Pompeii we had to rush back to the train station to catch the commuter train back to Rome. We stopped for DELICIOUS lemonade on the way and marveled at the lemons that were as big our heads. Beautiful colors in all of the market stands, too. Pretty fruits! Once we got on the train, we made it back to Naples just in time to jump on a train that would take us back to Rome for 9:30 pm. Or so we hoped!

Kait at the train station in Pompeii

The train ride back seemed endless – three hours is a long trip! Eventually we made it back to Rome, hoping that we would make all of the necessary connections for our commute back to Prima Porta and our hostel. We did not. Haha. We stopped for Chinese take-out – which took forever. And then we tried to find cigarettes and Coke for some of the other girls. And then we realized that once we down on the platform for the metro, that it was under construction and we needed to take a bus to the Flaminio station instead. We managed to get on the wrong bus and went about eight stops in the wrong direction before we figured it out. So we got out, ran to the right bus, and then followed it all the way down to Flaminio, or something like it. We were so confused. When we got to the train station, somewhere around 10:45, we were met with a “SERVICE TERMINATED” message and so we had to find an alternate way home. Fortunately, there are cabs everywhere so between the four of us, we split a 30 EUR cab fare and got right to our hostel, somewhere close to 11 pm. We sat on the floor in mine and Brenna’s room and ate luke warm Chinese food, drank wine, and Coke (not together, of course) and then met up again in the bar some 30 minutes later. ‘Twas another good night of merrymaking and new friends and an excellent venue to releasing the stress of a pain in the ass travel adventure. After all, Brenna and I do love those hostel bars and the Italian beer!

When in Rome: Easter Vacation (April 19th) Part 2

2011-04-26T10:36:00.001+02:00

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the second part of my vacation, which includes the second day in Rome – a tour of Vatican city and Piazza Novona!

After a long night at the hostel bar on Monday night, Brenna and I were, surprisingly so, ready and energetic for another tourist worthy day on Tuesday. We weren’t 100% sure what we wanted to do but we knew that we were saving Naples and Pompei for Wednesday so we decided to go into the city and brave Vatican City. We were meeting our traveling friends, Tyler and Aimee, in the city at 6 pm so we had to fill our day up until then. (Remember, I mentioned meeting them in Munich on the train to Dachau back in February? Yeah, they were in the city just for the weekend but were studying abroad in Rome. So, it worked out that Brenna and I got to visit them in their city this time around. I love traveling!) Brenna and I wandered towards Vatican City without a plan and were harrassed by at least five men soliciting guided tours. Lucky for him (and for us), a really handsome blonde guy named Luca managed to rope us in and sold us a tour for 40 EUR. So we signed up, handed over our money, and waited almost two hours for the tour to start.

View from where we waited in the courtyard

Naked gypsy, sleeping on the steps. Classy.

Still waiting!

If you’re in Rome and thinking about going to Vatican City, I highly recommend taking a guided tour. I know that it’s a lot of money but it was so worth it. We had this great tour guide named Eva who was a native Roman and explained everything – all the artwork in the museums, the statues, the significance of certain pieces and where they were before they reached the Vatican. She answered any and all questions that we had. I learned so much about the museums that I never would have known if Brenna and I had just breezed through it on our own. We learned about the Michaelangelo’s paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and how it depicts certain Bible stories, as well as the explanation behind Michaelangelo’s The Last Judgement. In every museum she explained the different pieces and why the different galleries were so significant. I can’t remember all the details but they were appreciated and worthy at the time so I’m really glad that we choose to go through with the tour. It was worth all the money and time that we spent on it. The tour of the Vatican and Vatican City itself were probably my favorite part about Rome. Maybe because I loved Angels & Demons so much but mostly because of the historical and religious significance of the Vatican. It’s so powerful – in the past and even today. I’m not Catholic or even very religious anymore but it’s really cool to be present in a place like that. I loved it!

Now, for a lot of pictures of artwork, statues, and other boring but totally cool Vatican stuff!

The walls of Vatican City – it is the smallest country in the world!

This ceiling is painted to look 3D. Fooled me!

The longest museum in the Vatican with, arguably, the coolest ceiling.

You can’t take pictures inside of the Sistine Chapel so I don’t have any of those but it was absolutely breathtaking. Aside from the millions of tourists jam packed inside their and the anal retentive guards shushing you to be quiet, it was really cool. I want to get a poster of The Last Judgement for my future apartment. Now that I’ve actually seen it and understand it’s meaning (the second coming of Christ), I feel justified in actually having a print of it. Plus, it’s really cool.

Not my picture but this is The Last Judgement.

After the Sistine Chapel we were released from the tour and Brenna and I wandered into St. Peter’s Basilica which is, without a doubt, the most stunning church I have ever seen. It beats any and every church in Munich. They also had St. Peter’s square and inside the basilica set up for the Pope’s appearance the following day so there were chairs everywhere but it didn’t take away from the ambiance or atmosphere. The church was breathtaking! We left the basilica and then wandered into St. Peter’s square where we tried to send a post card from the smallest country in the world but their “post office” was closed. So, instead we took pictures and tried to find memorable landmarks from the Angels and Demons plot.

Holy water, anyone?

It’s not the right one (it was covered by chairs) but the West Ponente was the one from Angels & Demons.
This is North East. FAIL.

After leaving Vatican City, we walked to Castel Sant’Angelo (another landmark in Angels & Demons – I know, I’m so dorky!) and marveled at the beautiful bridges, river, buildings, and statues. Then we headed to the Pantheon to meet Tyler and Amiee and only got lost and frustrated with each other and our map like twelve times. Haha. On the way there, I had my first taste of Italian pizza and it was delicious. So simple yet so refined. It was ricotta cheese with cherry tomatoes. YUM.

Castel Sant’Angelo is famous for it’s secret papal passageway which runs from the Castel back to the Vatican City palaces. It’s also an important part of the plot for Angels & Demons by Dan Brown.

We made it to the Pantheon and met Tyler and Aimee and their friend at 6 pm. The five of us then went for more gelato at Della Palma. I had four flavors that time but I can’t remember. I believe it was Kit Kat, sweet cream, mandarin orange, and raspberry. After that delicious detour, we wandered through the city and managed to find a delicious cannoli bakery. I’d been wanting a real Italian cannoli ever since we booked our flights so I was extremely happy to have found one. It was, without a doubt, the best cannoli I’ve ever tasted. It was absolutely perfect. From there we went to Piazza Novona where we found the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (or the Fountain of the Four Rivers) which is also important in the plot line of Angels & Demons. The rivers represented are the Niles, Danube, Ganges, and Plata. It was absolutely beautiful – the statues were incredible. The courtyard was full of artwork of all kinds – beautiful paintings and incredible artists. It was picturesque, to say the least. The day was fading away too, at that point, so it had the charm of twilight on its side. Piazza Novona was definitely a highlight of Rome. Afterwards, Tyler and Aimee took us to this little place they like to call the “cat sanctuary.” It’s just a site of ancient ruins where the stray cats of Rome like to hang out. And you know me, the cat lady of all cat ladies. I loved it! The cats are so cute and surprisingly clean for being strays. I wanted to take them all home.

Pantheon

Me, Tyler, Brenna, and Aimee at Piazza Novona

My favorite cat. He liked me, I think.

After we said good bye to Aimee and Tyler, we headed back to our hostel in Prima Porta. We bought a box of wine at Despar before and took it back with us. I believe Brenna drank more of it than I did that night but we definitely made good on Italian wine during our trip. We had bought bottles the night before as well and almost finished them both before we left on Friday morning. I wasn’t feeling very well by the time we got home so I tried to make it through a night at the bar but I couldn’t handle it and ended up going to bed early. Brenna stayed behind at the bar and made friends, two of them being Kait and Larissa who you will meet in the third installment of this vacation update. :)

A happy German girl with her Italian beer. Delicious.

When in Rome: Easter Vacation (April 17th–18th) Part 1

2011-04-25T11:39:00.001+02:00

This past Easter I was able to visit Rome on vacation and I had an absolutely wonderful experience. I spent four days and five nights in Italy and was able to see so many unbelievable and breathtaking sights – things I never thought that I would ever be fortunate enough to see with my own eyes. I was also fortunate enough to meet a handful of really awesome travelers – people who I may never see again but will never forget! For blogging purposes, I’m going to break the adventure down into numerous installments so that I can include everything. This is the first part of my vacation, which includes the first day of travel and the mishaps that came along with it, and the first days in the city! After that, I’ll write about my day trip to Naples and Pompei and the last of the adventure. Enjoy!

Brenna and I left Munich for Italy on Sunday, April 17th – barely a week after we’d first book our flights. Our plane took off from Franz Joseph Strauss around 5 pm and, after an hour or so in Zurich, Switzerland, we touched down in Rome. Traveling wasn’t bad at all – we didn’t encounter any delays or problems at any of the airports. We had to deal with expensive airport prices but that was about it. Once we got to Rome though, it got a little hectic. Our hostel was far outside of the city and since we had arrived in Rome at around 10:30 at night – all of the trains had stopped running by the time that we wanted to leave the airport. Between the train platforms and the airport itself, we wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out what the hell we needed to do to get to our hostel. We were harassed by every taxi or shuttle driver in Italy, at seemed, before one company gave us a good deal on a shuttle price - 30 EUR each for a shuttle directly to our hostel. Because we had a few other riders in the vehicle – Brenna and I were able to see a lot of Rome’s sights as we drove through the city. Our driver pointed out to us the Spanish Steps, old Roman walls, churches, various monuments. By the time we arrived at our hostel, it was pushing 1 am and we were tired. Unfortunately, we found out that Brenna had accidentally booked the wrong days and we didn’t actually have a booking – or a room – for that night. Fortunately, they were extremely hospitable and they gave us an upgrade and let Brenna and I stay in a private “suite” for our first night. And by private suite, I actually mean a two person trailer with a private bathroom. It was kind of ghetto. Haha. After we settled in, we both passed out – ready to enjoy our first day in Rome.

Waiting at the airport in Munich. Excited!

Munich to Zurich! And then onward to Roma!

Found it!

On Monday morning, Brenna and I woke up and got ready for the day and then checked out of our “suite” and moved over to the hostel dorms. They had originally booked us for the 20-person female shared dorm but because it was slow season, they moved us into a three-person female shared room and kept it at the same price. So Brenna and I had a room to ourselves for the four nights that we stayed at this hostel, which is, by the way, called Camping Tiber. There was an extra bed in our room the entire time but they never checked anyone into it. So that was nice for us! After settling into our new room and having some breakfast, Brenna and I jumped on the shuttle bus (provided for free from the hostel) that took us to the train station in Prima Porta (super ghetto!) where we jumped on a train into the main city center of Rome. This process meant that we took a 20 minute train ride from Prima Porta to the Flaminio station just outside of Piazza del Popolo and then we jumped on an underground to get to Termini (or other various places). (Side note: the Roman transportation system made us really miss Munich’s efficiency. The trains were dirty and disgusting and unreliable and closed early and were just generally bad.) We weren’t familiar with locations at that point so even though we could have just avoided the underground altogether and walked through Piazza del Popolo, we didn’t. Haha. Instead, we went with the directions that we had written down (Flaminio underground to Termini station) and headed in that direction. We decided to be spontaneous and got off of the subway at Barberini to see the Trevi Fountain instead. We felt it was a worthy start to our vacation.

The Trevi Fountain or the Fontana di Trevi, as it is properly named, is absolutely breathtaking. It’s gorgeous. It’s construction and location symbolizes the junction of the three roads of the ancient aqueducts that once supplied water to ancient Rome. It is said that if you throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain then you are guaranteed a return to Rome. There is another legend that says that it is lucky to throw three coins with your right hand over your left shoulder into the fountain. You better believe Brenna and I did that!

After the Trevi Fountain, we wandered through the streets of Rome intent on finding the Colloseum. We happened upon all kinds of random landmarks, fountains, piazzas, and parks that we didn’t know the names or significance of until the day was over and we looked them up. One of which was the Palazzo della Consulta at Piazza del Quirinale, which is the place where the Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic is located and where the president of the Italian Republic lives. Fun fact, it used to be the summer residence for the Pope! We also happened upon a quaint little park (Gardino del Quirinale) and wandered through some beautiful Italian streets, shaded with orange trees and quiet side streets.

Piazza del Quirinale

Gardino del Quirinale

Once we made it onto a busier street, we ended up finding a map at a tourist information booth and that made it a bit easier to navigate the streets of Rome. Eventually, we found our way to Piazza Venezia, the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. Which is where we spent most of the day, just wandering through the ancient ruins and taking in the history of this incredible city. The palace at Piazza Venezia is absolutely incredible. It’s massive and is so powerful on the landscape of the city. Palatine Hill was absolutely gorgeous and the view of the Roman ruins was surreal – a once in a lifetime moment. The Colloseum, of course, was stunning. It was such a strange feeling to be present at such a historical and world renowned landmark. We had lunch, delicious paninis and Italian Coke, on a stairway just opposite of the Colloseum so we had a great view as we ate our lunch.

Navigating

Palazzo Venezia

After lunch, we used our map to find our way to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, which our cab driver had pointed out to us the night before. On our way there we stumbled upon a gelateria and had our first taste of Italian gelato and it was delicious. I had a combination of melon, caramel (crema), and chocolate and Brenna had piña colado, coconut, and chocolate. The melon was my favorite – it tasted just like you were biting into a big, juicy cantelope. SO GOOD. After our gelato, we found the Basilica – which was gorgeous, as always – and then walked to Termini station where we got the train and made our way back to the hostel for dinner and drinks at the bar. We had to leave the city fairly early every night because of the horrible train schedules and the effort it takes to get back to our hostel. But it was a worthy first day in the city!

Basilica del Santa Maria Maggiore

The sign says: Happy Hour, Good Beer, Good Friends. True!

Day one in Rome, SUCCESS!

Off to Rome! Ciao Bella!

2011-04-17T12:10:00.001+02:00

Well, boys and girls, I owe the world some serious blog updates. I have been lazy. But, for now, I choose to travel instead and will be in Rome until Friday, the 22nd. Enjoy this lovely week of April and I will be back Easter weekend. Ciao!

Six Days in The Eternal City

2011-04-11T09:20:00.001+02:00

It’s official! On Sunday, April 17th I am flying to Rome for a six day vacation! Brenna and I are flying on Swiss Air, stopping over in Zurich, and continuing on to Rome late Sunday night. We have a hostel outside of the city center, a tourist book, and grand plans for our Easter holiday. Naples, Pompei, the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain. Cannoli’s and gelato, pizza, penne pasta, Italian wine. I never knew that I could be so excited about Italy – I didn’t even think twice about visiting before but now I can’t get it out of my head! The travel bug has definitely bitten, my friends!

Of course, none of those pictures are mine but I can’t wait until I have my own! Too bad my good camera is still broken. Boo! Although, I will mention that Brenna and I are going to do the Angels & Demons of Rome tour, following the plot from one of our favorite Dan Brown books of the same name. Yay!

Munich’s Spring Make-Over, Adventures in the English Gardens, Starkbierfest, Vacation Dreams, and Shameless Self-Promotion

2011-04-08T21:01:00.001+02:00

Remember when I used to be really good about writing updates about my life? Those were the days. Ha. I promise you that I’ve been thinking about it – there just hasn’t been a lot of doing. I have so much to catch up so I hope that I can do it justice. This may be a fairly long update but I have a feeling that you won’t mind. :)

The best thing about my life in Munich right now is that SPRING IS HERE. And I don’t mean like, maybe spring is kind of deciding to show up… the season has done a full on, head first somersault into spring and it’s absolutely GORGEOUS. The trees started turning green sometime late last week and there’s no stopping them now. I imagine that sometime next week, Munich will be bathed completely in green and we will be in business. The weather has been absolutely breathtaking as of late – high 60’s, low 70’s for temperatures, blue skies, sunshine, cloudless afternoons. Lately I’ve been spending my days in the English Gardens, laying out in the sun with friends, picnicking, listening to music, and thoroughly enjoying the new season. I’ve gotten a few sunburns already – two or three – and as painful as they are, it’s always nice when you can say you got your first sunburn of the season in late March!

Here’s some pictures from our lay outs in the English Gardens that I graciously stole from my friends Facebooks and some that I stole from myself. Spring! Yay!

Rosie, Mike, Fio, and Max playing Frisbee

Down by the Isar – Englischer Gartens

Yep, those are naked guys. And no I will not zoom in. :)

Yours truly, enjoying a lazy Thursday afternoon in the EG with my au pair gal pals

With spring came another beer fest (not the real spring fest, just wait!). Starkbierfest (strong beer) hit Munich somewhere around March 19th and we managed to check it out that weekend and then again on the 1st of April. Basically, starkbier is like the kick ass version of regular brewed beer, just much stronger. The first night that we went, I had to babysit that evening so I didn’t fully enjoy it but the second time around, we made a day out of it. From 1 pm until 12 am, we partied at the festival – making (and losing) new friends and enjoying way too many liters of that strong beer. We loved it though, we were in full tracht wear – dirndls and lederhosen – and even had the customary monstrous pretzel to go around. We do love our beer fests here in Munich. Frühlingsfest starts at the end of April – the spring’s version of Oktoberfest, with the beer tents and midway rides, too. I’m super excited for that! Bring it on, Munich! You haven’t defeated me yet!

Starkbierfest @ Paulaner’s Nockherberg

Me and my new Australian friend, David @ Nockherberg
You haven’t truly been to a bierfest until you’ve tried to hold five or more liters in one hand!

The Nockherberg biergarten

We had to do something with all the liters we’d collected

For some reason, now that it’s spring I’m babysitting three to four times as much as I ever did. For the last three weeks, I’ve worked 3-4 nights in a row. Sometimes it’s just what I need but now it’s just starting to get monotonous. My host-mom has offered to up my pay 50 EUR for every pay check, which I’m pretty sure is illegal and out-of-contract, but I suppose I can be bribed! The only downside is that I’ve been getting really restless with the children and I’ve been losing patience at home. I don’t get to go out with my friends as often as I did before and now I’m feeling more like a work-your-ass-off nanny and less like a cultural exchange au pair. (In fact, I’m working right now. Eenie is finishing Bambie and Vee fell asleep so I carried her to her bed – I’m such a mom. C’est la vie!)

Easter is fast approaching and I have so much to look forward to! I’m planning a 6-day trip to Rome with Brenna (decided this tonight, actually!) from Sunday April 17th until Friday, the 22nd. I don’t know how I will pay for it but eventually, it will be figured out! I just have to get out and go somewhere and it’s ROME!!! But more on that later… I still haven't booked the flight so once I’ve done that, then I’ll freak out! After that, my “Monterey Mom”, Christina, will be here for more than two weeks! I’m SO excited to see her, she has become family to me over the last four years and I am so happy that I get to see her while I’m in Germany. I visit her mom, Kathe, all the time and her sister Susie and her son, Dustin, have all been here already from California. It’s only fair that she gets the chance, too! She’s going to take me to Venice for a night/day trip so we’ll have plenty of girl gossip and time to catch up. I’m determined to get her to Frühlingsfest with me, too. I AM SO EXCITED. Christina, do you understand? SUPER EXCITED.

Once all of this passes me by, I’ll have time to catch my breath and realize that I’ll have just one month left in Munich. It’s just a little over two now. This is, quite honestly, something I don’t want to think about because it makes me sad. Just thinking about the day that I leave Munich and all of my friends makes me want to cry. So, for now, I will stop thinking about it. I do, however, intend to resume my “52 Things in Munich” bucket list. I did a few of them that I still haven’t written about and there are tons more that I have the chance to do but just haven’t. I think once my camera ate it, I lost inspiration to document those fun things. But I’ll take my little crap camera out and get back to business. I promise that will resume shortly!

I’ve been trying to make myself busy since I’ve been forced to stay home so often and so I got back into writing fiction. I might have mentioned my fiction blog here before but I’ll pimp it out again since I’m actually writing in it now. I’m not working on any specific projects – just prompt challenges to keep my creative mind working. But I hope you’ll check it out and follow it because Lord knows I have enough time to keep it up. It’s helpful for me to have encouragement, too, because I really want to be involved in my writing – I love doing it – but sometimes I fall short. Keep me on my toes! Suggest prompts for me, ask me to fictionalize events from the past nine months and I just might do it! Click on the graphic below (super cool points if you know where those lyrics come from!) and it’ll take you right to my blog. Enjoy!

(Not So) New German Girl: Nine Months Down, Three to Go

2011-03-28T09:31:00.001+02:00

March 20th marked the nine month “anniversary” of my arrival to Munich. And on this date, last year, March 28, 2010 I started this blog – Diary of An American Au Pair slash New German Girl. It’s been one year since that first post and nine months since I first arrived and guess what? I’m not so new anymore!

How can I explain to you just how much my life has changed over the last nine months? You’ve been reading this blog (I hope) so you have an idea of how far I’ve come and the things that I’ve seen but how could I really explain it to you in words? I’m not even so sure that I can do that for myself. What I do know, is that the girl that I was when I left California is not the same girl that will return in June. I have changed, my life has changed, and my eyes are wide open. I may not have seen very much of the world but what I have here – I absolutely love and to be quite honest, I wouldn’t ask for a do-over even if you paid me.

The months leading up to my German adventure were busy, busy, busy. Of course I had Germany on my mind but I was so preoccupied. I was trying to finish my Capstone and was looking forward to my college graduation. I was organizing all of my material possessions, moving out of my apartment, walking away from my numerous jobs and co-workers, saying good bye to friends and loved ones, and preparing myself for the unknown. When I first arrived, after nearly 13 hours of travel with swollen feet and a weary smile, it didn’t feel that different. I couldn’t understand how to get through the airport, not because of the language – everything was written in both English and Deutsch – but because Franz Joseph Strauss airport is a ridiculous mess of signs and signals and moving sidewalks. Eventually, I found a taxi in some shady back corner and I gave my address to the driver and although he barely understood me – I was hopeless back then – he managed to finally understand and we were driving away. My adventure was right in front of me. It was about to begin.

Sometimes nostalgia from the moments when I first arrived creeps in and reminds me of how new and exciting those first few days really were. I remember how it felt to be at home but still such a stranger inside of my empty room. I remember the moment when Helen first walked up the stairs – I hadn’t seen her in two years and it was so good to hear her voice. “I missed your accent!” I told her. I remember the smell from when I first arrived – rain and summer all mixed up together. I remember the sleepless nights, lying awake in my bed until 4 or 5 A.M. desperately hoping my jet lag would soon resolve itself. I remember the first moment that I met the girls and how shy they were, hiding from me in a corner eating Duplo candy bars and giggling uncontrollably. It feels so far away yet those days still remain so close to me.

I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to the Munich life – Helen was an absolute blessing! Do you remember the story of how I met her? We have a mutual friend, Helena, who went to university with Helen and after mine and Helena’s second summer working at Camp Cayuga in eastern Pennsylvania, Helena came to visit me in California with some of our other co-workers and brought Helen along. This was in September of 2008. Fast forward to June 2010 and Helen and I are sharing the third floor “flat” of our once-mutual employer and she’s welcoming me to her life in Munich. My first ToyTown event set the stage for the next six months (and more!) of my life in Munich because that’s when I met Jessica. Darling, darling Jessica.

It was clear after our first weekend in Munich that things were not going to slow down and that Jessica and I were going to be incredible friends. I couldn’t have made a better friend that first week and even now, I can’t imagine my time here in Germany without her. She’s been there the whole time – even after she left in December. My summer in Munich was unforgettable and not just because of Jessica but because of the wonderful friends that I made along the way. I found Lauren, my fellow California au pair, at ToyTown held at a summer festival. Chris, Clare, and Tomas I met the week before that when Jessica and I showed up drunk to Löwenbräu keller for a weekly ToyTown event. We met Catherine through Lauren and we brought her along with us to the Augustiner beer garden where we drank delicious beer and grooved to a German rock band until we were drunk and sweaty and ridiculously happy. And Tiago and Andre, who became an essential part of my life in Munich a bit later in the year, I met the same night that I met Jessica. But they came and went throughout the summer and into the fall until they were just there, all the time, and Tiago, especially. There was beautiful Elli, Jessica’s co-worker and friend, who was absolutely wonderful. And Eric – dashing, handsome, blessedly perfect Eric – my wonderful, Hogwarts-loving gay boyfriend who I met during our 22-hour adventure to visit Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein castle. I fell in love with him that day and nothing has changed. He still has my heart. I met Jennie during this fateful trip as well and the best part about having Jennie here – her wit and astounding intelligence and now, our blog camaraderie (she’s fabulous!). And she’s returning to Munich, in almost a month! Yes!

And then there was Harry – wonderful Harry – who I met at Clubhouse, an infamous ToyTown venue. I spent the whole summer adoring Harry, with his charming smile and English ways. He knew how much I adored him – German beer became my truth serum whenever I was around him – and despite the numerous times I confessed my adoration, he never made me feel awkward about it. He was (and still is) a wonderful human being. I must think so to give him his own paragraph! He became an essential part of my summer and even through we aren’t getting married and living happily ever after together (damn!), I will always cherish how much better my summer was because of him.

And how could I ever forget Fionnuala? The girl with the fiery red hair who first thought I was just another crazy, loud, and obnoxious American? How could we have known then how much we would mean to each other now – best friends and practically inseparable? I spent six days with her family in London over New Year’s and now, eight months after having met her, we’re still rocking Munich as much as we ever did, maybe even more. My life here in Munich wouldn’t be the same without Fionnuala (or Fio, as we fondly call her). And without Fio, I wouldn’t have met Laura, the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful Dutch girl that you will ever meet. And as the months passed I found so many, many more to light my life: Bria, Mike, Zainab and Sara, Nuno, Ana, Paul (crazy, wonderful Paul!), Benji, Nathan, Stoney, and sweet little Wing. And most recently, Cat, who found me through this blog by way of Google! Of course, there are many more but this blog would go on forever! But how could I forget Brenna – my crazy, psychotic but blessedly wonderful American soul mate. I met her through Lauren, as she took over Lauren’s job, and we hit it off right away – you would have thought we’d been friends forever. I love the girl. A lot. But she knows this. ;) I’ve made incredible and lasting memories with so many of these wonderful friends and if I didn’t have them here with me, this experience wouldn’t be anywhere near as amazing as it’s been thus far.

Through all of this I was still an au pair, too. I sometimes forget to mention that part, don’t I? Even though my job is the reason I am here, it has not been the focal point of my experience here in Germany. Of course, I have much more fun when I’m out with my friends but the time that I do spend with the kids I care for, I love every minute of it. Most of the time. The twins that I care for, Eenie and Vee, are wonderful girls. They’re six so they have their tantrums and moments of unpleasantness but, most of the time, we get along well and co-exist. They’ve grown to love me and I them – but it didn’t take long. I live in their house and see them everyday. It’s inevitable. They call me “Hezzah” and Eenie often shortens it to “Hezzie.” I love it. For all the years I thought my name didn’t come with any nicknames! I don’t do much more than play with them and speak English constantly. They love card games – Rummy, Solitaire, and Go Fish are their favorites, all of which I taught to them. They love to color and draw and do art projects. We’ve painted so many pictures and are always filling up coloring books. In the summer we went swimming and went to the zoo. We went to playgrounds and on bike rides. They’re both so smart. They moved on from kindergarten and started school in September and now, in March, they both know how to read and they just charge through their books. They’re even reading in English! They got unicycles for their birthday in July and they’re getting better with every day that they practice. They cry a lot too, more than six year olds should but the fighting that goes on between them is pretty normal for sisters of that age. I take in stride and do my best. I don’t discipline them… no one really does, actually. They don’t often need disciplining but sometimes they can get a little chaotic. We do what we can with them! Hopefully they turn out to be respectful, kind, and wonderful young women! I’m doing what I can to help them get there.

My crazy little monkey girls

And now… here I am… caught up with adventures and looking at less than three months to enjoy Munich. And to be honest… I can’t even imagine myself leaving now. How do I walk away from this? Home feels one million miles away. I have changed so much since I first arrived. Emotionally – I feel like a completely different person. My college life and college friends feel so far away. I only speak to a few of them regularly. We’re all growing up and moving on and living completely separate lives. They have their relationships – serious boyfriends and even husbands – and some of them are still finishing school. Will I be able to relate to them still? Will they love me even though I’ll long for this German life for years to come? I wonder how I could ever explain to them how this year has changed me, how much it has affected my life. I wonder if they will recognize me as the same girl who left and I wonder how my life will carry on once I am back in California. And yet I wonder, fearfully, if everything will just go back to the way that it was, as if Munich never existed and it was just a year in my life that only exists inside of my head and my heart. It feels as if nothing could ever be better than this, that nothing I do in the near or distant future could ever be this wonderful. And that California will never compare to this.

Do not, for one minute, think that I am not excited to go home because trust me, I am. But my return has never felt so bittersweet. There were moments over the last few months where I ached with homesickness, where I cried myself to sleep because I wanted to go home, because I just missed home. So yes, I know that things will be different but, at the same time, I anticipate my return. I miss my mom and my family, my closest friends, and the comfort and familiarity and the convenience of living in the United States. I’m looking forward to getting back to real life, to managing my debt and to driving again (God, I miss my car!). But, on the same hand, I just don’t want to leave Munich. I wish I could have the best of both worlds. I will always have Munich in my heart and in photos and memories but it will never be as good as living it, will it?

Regardless of how my life goes on once I am back in the States, I will never forget the time that I spent here in Munich. It has changed me – for the better – and it has opened my eyes. Before I came here I believed myself to be mediocre and unassuming – never destined for a far away adventure. I was a California girl and I didn’t make enough money or have enough initiative or interest to travel or express myself in a different environment. I didn’t think that my life was very interesting or exciting. I did everything that I thought I was supposed to – I went to school and did my homework, got a job, made money, paid my bills, went out with my friends. And then one day, after I’d spent a few weeks in a really rough emotional state, I woke up and I thought, “I want something more.” And so I looked into being an au pair. And over the course of a year and a half, it fell exactly as it was supposed to. It all worked out. And I began to see that I wasn’t boring or mediocre, that I wasn’t giving myself enough credit. I was strong and confident and willing to rise above my own expectations. I knew that I deserved more, that I could make more out of my life. And now, more than ever before, I feel accomplished and proud of everything that I’ve done, for every decision I’ve ever made in my life has led to me to place where I am right now. I have never been happier with my life or who I am. And it took going away to a foreign country to realize just how much I am loved and cherished by all the people in my life who I left behind. It’s true what they say, “How can you be missed if you never go away?” Go away! Get out somewhere! See where the world can take you and how it can change you. You will thank yourself for it later, I promise.

If there were one thing that I’ve learned from this experience so far it would be to never second guess yourself and reach for everything that is laid in front of you. Don’t doubt yourself and don’t let convention or mediocrity set you back from living your life to the fullest extent. I am so grateful for this experience and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to, or even the interest in traveling and living abroad to DO IT. Get off of your ass, explore your life, and find yourself. Life won’t go on forever and eventually, chances like this will run out. It is extremely likely that once I get home, my life will go back to normal and this experience will seem like a dream, but I’d rather live my life knowing that I did experience it instead of only dreaming about it. I did it. It’s almost over, yes, but I lived it – a dream that I didn’t even know I had until it came true. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it’s absolutely true. Life couldn’t have handed me a better deal. I am eternally grateful for this opportunity and I will never forget the memories or the girl who first arrived here - whoever she is - because without her, I couldn’t appreciate how far I’ve come since last June.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOG! You’ve been good to me! Many thanks!
(And to my mom, too, because her birthday is tomorrow. Love you, ma!)

‘Twas a Beautiful Spring Day in Munich

2011-03-24T21:07:00.001+01:00

It was a gorgeous day in Munich today so Brenna and I took advantage of it and wandered around taking pictures of everything in sight. Blue skies made us feel really touristy and/or artsy. Now please, enjoy the fruit of our inspiring day! I also sat in the English Gardens for an hour reading and writing letters. And then I played outside with Die Kinder. It was glorious. I love spring!

Spring equals flowers! Sehr schön!

Marienplatz

Reflections

We have fun everyday. I love them a lot.

They’re getting better! Go Eenie!

Spring Has Come to the City, Beer Fests and Dirndl Season (Again!), and Vacation Plans

2011-03-24T09:33:00.001+01:00

It’s been over a week since I last posted to this blog. My apologies – I haven’t been very inspired by my life to blog about it. That sounds much worse than reality, trust me. Life in Munich is wonderful, as always, I just haven’t been doing a lot of ‘blog worthy’ things. There has been a lot of weekend partying but who wants to hear about that? My friends and I realize that we have less than three months together and we’re making the most of it – judgments be damned! We do, however, have a moral conscience and we recognize the moments that our behavior gets out of hand. We make mistakes – we try not to make them again and sometimes we fail. But, ah, c’est la vie! As happy as I am to be here and enjoy these final weeks in Munich, I am looking forward to being home and taking a serious detox from my crazy party life. It’ll be nice to slow down and grow up a little bit. Until then, I fully intend to be young and carry on living my wonderful life.

The best thing going on in Munich right now – SPRING! It’s official – winter is OVER. We’ve had sunny, blue skies all week and temperatures have hit mid to high 50’s. The trees are sprouting green buds and the birds keep singing at all hours of the day and night. The beer gardens are back to their triumphant state – tables spread out and beer drinkers enjoying the sunshine and good company. My girl friends and I spent almost the entire afternoon last Sunday at the English Gardens, basking in the deliciously warm sunshine. It was a beautiful, beautiful day!

There is a beer festival going on in Munich yet and although we have yet to enjoy it – we still brought out the dirndl’s this past weekend to celebrate. We always have fun in our dirndl’s, especially when no one else is wearing them and we get all of the attention. We walked around Munich forever trying to find a location for the starkbierfest but we failed. So we ended up at one of our favorite hostel bars where craziness ensued and Fio, Brenna, and I had one of the best nights in Munich thus far. We’re still talking about it – almost a week later. Fio’s 16-year-old cousin was in town for the weekend, too, visiting from Ireland and that girl definitely got a good taste of our crazy life. She was absolutely wonderful – we all loved her and hope to see her again before we all leave.

Anything can happen when you wear your dirndl!

At the moment, I’ve got my window wide open – clean clothes drying all over my room, and a blessedly beautiful day ahead of me. I’m babysitting the girls tonight – again. I’ve been doing this a lot lately. My host mom is on a bunch of museum committees and there are a bunch of museum openings lately so I’ve worked three to four nights out of seven for the last two weeks. It’s been okay though – I don’t have much money because of my trip to Cologne – and the nights that I did have off, I made the most of them. The week ahead should be good. We’re actually attending Starkbierfest this weekend (I don’t think I’ll like the beer much, honestly) and next week I have less babysitting responsibilities.

And hopefully I can start planning a trip to Italy over Easter vacation. I mean, I’ve made the plans – I just have to finalize them. I’m hoping for Cinque Terra and Venice but we’ll see! It depends on how much money I have and can manage to save. Ideally I’d love to fly to Pisa, take a train to Cinque Terra, hike one of the trails, get back to the train station, take a train to Venice, spend a weekend in Venice with the girls, and then get back to Munich. We’ll see!

Until I figure all of that – I’m going to continue enjoying spring in Munich! I love it!

I always stick my tongue out when I’m trying to concentrate.

Happy spring!

“Spring Break” in Cologne: Part II

2011-03-15T09:53:00.001+01:00

Saturday in Cologne started around 12:30, seeing as we didn’t get up and out of bed until then. We had a late “brunch” and then headed into the city, intent on enjoying a bike ride adventure. It was a nice day – blue skies and a gentle breeze and warm weather! Everything Munich wasn’t. It took us a while to get through the city and find the bike rental station but eventually we managed. We only paid 5 EUR for a three hour rental – it was perfect. We got our bikes and headed out. Fio had done the bike ride before so she knew what she was doing. We had an hour down the right ride of the river and then we’d find a little boat that would take us to the other side. From there, we could ride down the opposite bank and get back to the city. The bike ride, each way was about 10 kilometers or 6 miles! So we rode about 12 miles on Saturday. But it was awesome and so, so, so beautiful. It was probably the best thing that came out of the weekend. I had such a good time and enjoyed the weather and scenery of Cologne from the seat of that horrible, malfunctioning bike. Sigh. Haha.

Katherine and Fio during our ride

Me and Fio, cyclers for life!

The Rhine river as we crossed over on the boat

After our bike ride, we headed back to the apartment where we cooked pizzas, made salad, and drank beer with Caitlin and one of Katherine’s room mates, a handsome German boy named Timo. We did more pre-drinking and tried to play all sorts of drinking games but we kept coming up short. And Fio just didn’t seem like she was into it. She ended up staying in because she wasn’t feeling well so Katherine, Caitlin, and I went out into the city and stayed out until nearly 5 am! It’s soooo much cheaper to go out in Cologne so I had fun spending significantly less amounts of money then when I’m in Munich. Cocktails for 3,90 EUR and beers for less than 3 EUR. Score!

Me, Caitlin, and Katherine – bathroom pics!

And that’s how you party in Cologne! ;)

On Sunday we slept until almost 2, seeing as we’d come in at 5 am that morning and made Sunday our lazy day. We watched English TV in Katherine’s bed and then headed out around 5 to go to a local Irish pub for roast dinner, pub quiz, and karaoke. And it must be mentioned that while I was in Cologne, I had my first ever meet-up with a fellow blogger! The adorable and wonderfully lovely Pia from Odds and Ends lives there in Cologne and since I knew that from reading her blog, I emailed her before hand and got her phone number and then we arranged to meet up in the city. She came to the Irish pub with me and my friends and, bless her sweet, patient heart, she endured at least five hours of me and my crazy friends. Our quiz team, the Big Fat Gypsies came in fifth place. She also stayed to watch us do a bit of karaoke which was, to say the least, entertaining, I’m sure. There was barely anyone in the bar so we all knocked out about four or five songs each. Go us! We’re becoming karaoke masters! Pia left before we did but it was good to see her and have her there with us! Thanks for meet up with me, Pia! I loved meeting you. :)

Pia and I at Jameson’s Irish Pub

And since Pia got to watch me do karaoke… so do you!

Here I go… Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song!

On Monday, Fio and I woke up early so that we could go into the city and do some touristy things before we had to catch our flight back to Munich at five. We hit up Dunkin Donuts and I got a maple donut and a strawberry donut which was DELICIOUS. Then we went to the Dom and paid 3 EUR to climb about fifty bazillion stairs to get to the top and see the city. My lungs were BURNING and my heart was racing by the time we reached the top (I’m SO out of shape!) but the view from up there was so worth the effort. It was gorgeous. Munich has the Olympia tower, which puts you up about that high but I wish our city had a view like that from the center of town like Cologne does. It was gorgeous and a perfect ending to my time in the city.

The Rhine river from the atop the Dom

Some Cathedral spires and the “Love Lock” bridge

Another view of the city

Some artsy pictures that I took while I was lying at the base of the Dom,
catching my breath and resting my tired knees

Edgar Allen Poe, anyone?

My trip to Cologne was absolutely wonderful. I had such a good time visiting another city for the weekend – I wish that I’d done more of this over the last nine months. It’s hard to believe that I only have three months left in Europe. I hope that I can get a few more travel destinations in there before I go. But seriously… if you ever get the chance to travel Germany, make Cologne one of your destinations. It will be so worth your time and it’s a gorgeous city. I, of course, am a bit partial to Munich but being in another city defintiely allowed em to appreciate how lucky I am to be based in Munich. It, too, is a wonderful city and I was happy to come home – especially since the forecast today is blue, sunny skies, and 60 degree temperatures! I am going to go into the Englischer Garten and lay in the sun and write letters and postcards. A perfect kick off to the spring season.

It’s good to be home.

“Spring Break” in Cologne: Part I

2011-03-15T09:48:00.001+01:00

On Friday, March 11th I traveled to Cologne for a weekend trip with my friend, Fionnuala, which was my first official inter-German travel adventure. I've been to various places within Bavaria (thank you Bayern ticket!) but this was my first trip away from Munich to another major German city. Fio's childhood and university friend, Katherine, (who'd I met for Fio's birthday in October) lives and works in Cologne so we made the trip to visit her and see the city through the eyes of a worthy "resident."

Fio and I boarded our plane in Munich around 11:30 and endured an oh-so grueling flight (50 minutes!) to northwest Germany. We landed in Cologne around 12:30 and then found our way from the airport to the city via S-Bahn. Our first stop, Cologne Hauptbahnhof and the famous Dom cathedral to meet Katherine.

The Dom, at first sight, is absolutely breathtaking. We don't have churches nearly this big in Munich so I think I stared at it, slack jawed and in awe, for a good minute or two before I started enjoying the rest of the city around me. The plaza surrounding the Dom was full of tourists and fellow travelers and street entertainers - one in particular, a very strange man dressed as a Dalmation in a dog crate. Weird.

Fio and I laughed at American tourists and some German rap artists filming a music video. Finally Katherine showed up and we began our trek to her apartment, stopping first for McDonald's where we caught her up on the Munich gossip.

After lunch we walked through the shopping district towards the trams where we could catch a ride down to Katherine's apartment. On the way there, we ran into a curious crowd outside of a Douglas perfumerie. Katy Perry's song Ur So Gay was playing in a suspiciously loud loop and half naked pictures of her stood on prominent display. It became clear to us then that Katy Perry was probably in there and so we joined the crowd and discovered that she was! Apparently, she was launching her new fragrance line, Purr. We found out later that she was having a concert in Cologne that evening, too. It was cool to see a fellow California girl and super famous celebrity within the first hour of my traveling weekend!

See her, right there in the middle? Haha. I know… it’s a stretch!

We wandered through the city from there - Cologne has an amazing shopping district AND two different Dunkin Donuts shops. We don't even have those in California! We went back to Katherine’s apartment for a bit and then hit the city again and wandered around, taking pictures of some of the scenery and architecture. It’s a gorgeous city! I was very impressed.

This is the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne. It has “Love Locks” up and down the pedestrian walk on the right side which is supposed to symbolize the love of the couples who place their locks there. There are millions of locks and they’re all really cool. I got so many great pictures of them.

We also ventured inside of the Dom and even though I’m not Catholic, I lit a candle for my mom because I was thinking of her – and good thing, too, because I found out the next morning that the tsunami waves from the recent earthquake in Japan had reached all the way to California. It was, of course, nothing of a serious nature but it’s scary to hear things like that when you’re so far away from home. So I’m glad that I thought to light that candle for her, I like to think that it kept her safe (from no real imminent danger, anyway!). Haha.

On Friday night we made fajitas at Katherine’s apartment and got together with her neighbor, a lovely girl from Australia named Caitlin, who came over and did some pre-drinking with us at the apartment. Word to the wise – don’t try to pre-drink with wine. It’s effective but really hard to do. Haha. Gross. We tried to go out on Friday night but met a bit of a lack luster crowd. No one was out in Cologne because Karneval had just wrapped up the Tuesday before. Everyone was resting, no one wanted to go out! So, we called it an early night and went back home, promising ourselves we’d go out on Saturday night. Besides, we had a big event ahead of us for Saturday – a three hour bike ride along the Rhine river! More on that later…

Me and my first non-Bavarian beer!

Alternative Uses for My Bachelor’s Degree: Review of 8Tracks.com

2011-03-10T19:48:00.001+01:00

There are one million other things I should be doing right now… like blogging for a giveaway that’s been on queue for two months now or calling my student loan companies to check up on the status of my deferments. But, instead, I am here, blogging about the thing that has stolen away all of my time and attention lately.

http://8tracks.com

8Tracks.com has stolen my music-loving heart as of late and I am here to rave all about it because… well, because I can. I stumbled across this site by way of my fellow blogger friend, Julie, and ever since I have been in love. I don’t know how I didn’t find it sooner – this kind of thing is what I live for – but no matter, it came at the perfect time. In the middle of a week long “spring break” of sorts I spent pretty much every day with my headphones on, listening to user-made “mix tapes” and making my own to share with the 8tracks community and, yep… my Facebook News Feed.

8Tracks is kind of like Internet radio, on the same plane as LastFM and Pandora. 8Tracks, however, is unique in that it lets you create your own mixes via uploads from your iTunes library and then allows you to compile and arrange them into mixes of your own making. Each playlist is customizable from the title to the description and right down to the playlist image – which is one of my favorite parts. Your “Liked Mixes” collage starts to look pretty badass after a while. Here’s mine:

Every mix has it’s own picture, a unique title, and a pretty cool array of songs and you get to pick which ones you like the best. You can listen to them as many times as you want. After you’ve listened to the entire mix once, for the second (and subsequent) time around, the songs will be shuffled. Which is okay by me because I shuffle my iPod playlists every time, anyway. I don’t like order when it comes to my music. Surprise me, baby! Much like on Pandora, you can only “skip” a song a few times an hour, which is part of their licensing agreement. However, a great feature that comes along with your music-listening experience is the ability to “pause” or (accidentally) close down the mix and to come back and start it right from where you left off. Basically, it remembers where you were and keeps your song there for you until you come back. You can browse through mixes on the home page which lists the most recently uploaded and the most popular, or you can search by genre or artist. You can also leave comments on mixes that you like and you can follow users who’s mixes you adore most. Their mixes come together in a “Mix Feed” which works just like Facebook’s News Feed – all of your favorite mixes show up in a feed list.

My favorite part of being in love with my iTunes library is sharing it with other people so I was absolutely floored to find that I could do that with this site. I immediately started uploading my own playlist.

Basically, you have an upload button in the top left corner (not shown, unfortunately) and it opens a File Browser where you can navigate to the necessary music folders for the tracks that you want to put in your mix. There’s just a few of the tracks I’ve downloaded shown there but so far, I have at least 60 to 70 tracks uploaded on my 8tracks account. There appears to be no limit on the amount of songs that you can upload – however, your mixes (per the site’s licensing agreement) can not include more than two tracks from any one artist or album and it must have a title, artist name, and album title included (which you can add in once it’s uploaded). I’m fairly certain that all of my mixes (and I have about six now) each feature an Angus & Julia track. So, essentially, I could download every A&J track that I have but I could only include up to two on each mix that I make. Oh, AND you get to pick which mix plays after yours – from mixes that you like or have recently listened to. It’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Basically, 8Tracks kicks a lot of ass. I feel like a super cool DJ or something. It’s “interactive” radio at its best. And since I love, love, love sharing my music and since I take a lot of pride in my music tastes, I’m seriously enjoying sharing my music via this website. And, equally, I love listening to music so I get the best of both worlds. So, here’s a link to my 8Tracks profile and my best mix thus far (which you can listen to right here on this blog!):

Karneval! Karneval!

2011-03-03T16:49:00.001+01:00

In 2006, I was lucky enough to visit New Orleans for the start of the new year but, unfortunately, I missed Mardi Gras by about a month and a half. It would have been really cool to have been in New Orleans for its famous, crazy holiday but someday, I hope to get a second chance at that. But for now I’m happy to be able to enjoy the equivalent here in Munich.

Carnival season is upon us. Or Karneval, as it is called in most parts of Germany. It’s also referred to as Fasching. It’s a Roman Catholic and Christian Orthodox celebration that officially begins on November 11th on the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour. But, for the most part, things stay pretty quiet until February or March. The end of Karneval falls at midnight on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday), just before Ash Wednesday. So, the week leading up to that is when the festivities really get going and people all over Germany (it’s the most enthusiastic Karneval location in Europe!) start dressing up and causing trouble. It is, after all, described as a time to “break the rules.” Officially, it’s just a way to have a massive celebration before the fasting of Lent.

I snagged this off of the Interwebs:

In Germany, particularly in the Rhineland area, the tradition can be traced to medieval times where many countries existed under harsh rules. Kings, princes and even smaller potentates maintained their own courts. In doing so, they flaunted before each other their own pomp and splendor at the expense of their population.
During karneval time, the common people took a chance at 'living it up" and "talking back to their rulers". They would make a mock government of eleven people, as well as other officials. A price and princess were selected to rule the country during the Fasching season. Political authorities, high placed persons and sovereigns were the target of ridicule, and featured in humorous and satirical speeches. To avoid persecution and punishment, these antics were played out from behind masks and costumes. Parades, dancing in the streets, masquerade balls and comical skits filled the days and nights.

Cologne, Germany has one of the most popular Karneval celebrations. I’d really hoped to visit Cologne for the weekend of Karneval but I mixed up my vacation weekends and so my friend Fionnuala and I are traveling the weekend after Karneval. Oops.

But here in Munich – the festivies carry on! Less crowds, more friends, and blessed familiarity should we get drunk and need to find our way home. Donuts are the official food of Karnevale/Fasching or krapfen auf Deutsch!

Munich’s Carnival Timeline

Thursday, March 3rd: Women’s Carnival Day
In Cologne, it’s the date of the opening parade at 11:11 am and women, even in Munich, have the benefit of kissing whomever they like after cutting off his tie. ONLY, his tie. ;)

Friday-Sunday, March 4th-6th: Faschings Weekend
Parties all throughout Germany in celebration of Fasching. Here in Munich it is no exception! We will be out in fun and silly costumes! Pictures will be taken, don’t worry.

Monday, March 7th: Rose Monday
This is the day of the official Fasching’s parade – marching bands, dancers, and floats and people dressed in all kinds of costumes flock through the city. In Cologne there is a massive parade. In Munich, a parade marches through Viktualienmarkt.

Tuesday, March 8th: Fasching / Shrove Tuesday
Costume balls! Or just general costumed merry-making all over Germany!

Wednesday, March 9th: Ash Wednesday
A quiet day to take a break and Lent begins.

Nine Months Gone By (I Could Have Cooked a Baby By Now!), My Impending Adulthood, and All the Things and People That Make My Life

2011-03-01T09:41:00.001+01:00

I can’t believe that it’s already the 1st of March, that’s it already spring. Where the hell has this year gone? I started this blog almost a year ago. It’s been almost nine months since I started this adventure in Munich. Time goes by so fast. This time last year I was working diligently on my graduation capstone and was taking care of Baby D five days a week. It feels so far away. So much has happened since then and my life has changed in every way possible. I have been so blessed to have this experience and I wish that there were more than just three months left to enjoy it. Unfortunately, that is all that I have left – 110 days, just a little over three months. There is still so much that I can do in that time – I’m going to be traveling this spring (budget-willing!), visiting Barcelona, Spain and, hopefully Verona and Venice, Italy. I’m going to Cologne on the 11th of this month. And in May, I’m going to Berlin to visit friends who live there. There’s another beer festival coming up in March – the Starkbierfest – which means that the dirndl is coming out again and my girlfriends and I can feel like real Bavarians. I’ve fallen short on my Munich bucket list but I’ll pick up on it again – I have a lot of stuff to catch up on that I haven’t even posted yet. Bear with me. I’ll get through it eventually.

Life has been good. Things in Munich are wonderful, I have no complaints. My social life here far outweighs my au pair responsibilities. Last weekend we completely exhausted ourselves partying. One going away party after another and two 6 am returns in a row. Club nights, bars, beer, tequila. We take it all in stride and we look out for each other whenever and wherever we can. I spent all day Sunday in bed watching How I Met Your Mother. It was glorious. Then my lovely friend, Ana, fed me a delicious pasta dinner and we talked for hours about everything going on in our lives. I love weekends here – I live for them. I will miss this when I go home to live in my mom’s basement and start my grown-up life. I will miss this last chance that I’ve been given to really just be young and carefree. It doesn’t have to stop after this but it will. I’m making that choice. I’m choosing to grow up and take on a more responsible adult role. Which is fine with me. But, for now and in spite of my near and not so distant future, I choose to enjoy the time that I have left here and to just live my life as it comes.

My favorite picture of the week:

My best girlfriend, Fionnuala. I LOVE HER.

Other things I’ve done in the last week or so:

I watched 127 Hours about the guy who cuts off his arm. Incredible.
Called my mom, twice, over the course of five days and talked to her for over an hour both times. I miss her. A lot.

I can’t wait to hang out with my mom and Ruby Tuesday.

Earned 80 EUR on the side. It’s a secret! :) And then spent it all. Another lesson learned. Sigh.
Played at the spielplatz with the cutest twins in all of Munich.

Das ist alles. Danke. Tschüs!

52 Things: #12, #16, and #28… (and Some Other Unrelated Stuff, Too)

2011-02-21T01:09:00.001+01:00

I knocked three things off of the list this weekend. Unintentionally, too. Thursday night, during one of our Skype video chats, Brenna and I decided that, since we were both off for most of the day on Friday, that we would go to the Dachau concentration camp memorial site. I’d already been but Brenna had yet to go and I was happy to go again because one, it’s free, and two, it’s really interesting and always worth a visit. We met at the fish fountain (Standard!) at noon and then argued about whether or not we should be honorable and get an S Bahn ticket. I convinced her that we did, in fact, need to get a ticket (we’re honorable residents!) and assured her that I’d read all of the ticket options and that I knew exactly which one was the one that we needed.

Turns out I was wrong. Which brings me to #12 on my list of things to do in Munich:

Be stymied by Munich’s public transport pricing system.

This happens all the time. I don’t know WHY it’s so confusing it just is. There are rings and zones and inner districts and outer districts, partner tickets and single tickets, day trips, single trips, stripe cards. Yada, yada. It’s ridiculous. Most of Munich lies within rings 1-4 and on the map, ther area is coded in white and green. Weird shades of green, mind you! Dachau is on the edge of the fourth ring in the green… I think. Oh shit, I don’t know! I thought we needed the outer district ticket (Außenraum: green, yellow and red zone) because Dachau was in the green zone. So we bought the outer ticket, only to discover later, as our ticket is being checked (Brenna, you’re WELCOME!) that the Außenraum ticket covers rings 5-16. What? Who even goes out that far? Haha. Seriously. So not only did we have the wrong ticket but I was missing rings 3-4… the only rings that I needed to get from point A to point B. And we were definitely inside of ring 3 when he checked us. But the guy didn’t get me for it. It probably happens a lot. Haha. But I did have my MONTHLY TRAIN PASS (which is #16 – “Buy a monthly public transport ticket”) so I had rings 1-2 and rings 5-16. I was officially stymied.

Halfway through the journey, we met some fellow Americans who had taken the seats near us and we quickly befriended them. How could we not with Brenna and I being the only two people in the entire train car that were speaking? They heard us and sat down next to us, comforted by our shared home language. The four of us were all headed to the same place and since I’d been to Dachau once already, I kind of became the unofficial tour guide. And Brenna became the unofficial comic relief. Although at times it felt a tad bit inappropriate, the girl kept us laughing throughout the two or so hours that we spent walking around the historical site. I’ve been there before so I won’t get into it but the place is just depressing. As it has every right to be. Horrible things happened there. But either way, it was nice to have Brenna there to keep things jovial. Haha.

We spent the rest of the weekend showing our new friends around Munich (Schloss Nymphenburg and the inside of not one but two McDonald’s, haha). Also, #28 (tell someone off for standing on the wrong side on the escalator) comes in to play because I got to yell at one of the girls to move to the right side of the escalator. Haha. Sorry, Tyler!

On Friday night, Brenna and I joined some friends at Mike’s house for dinner and wine and then we all went out and stayed in the city, bar hopping until 4 am. We went from Sausalitos to Ned Kelly’s to Kilian’s, to a cheap kebap shop where the owner tried to take advantage of us. We picked up some interesting characters throughout the night the best being an Italian cocaine dealer who thought we were the cops after Brenna told him to ‘Leave us the f%$k alone and go away!’ Haha. On Saturday night I was home with the girls so it was macaroni and cheese and a few streaming episodes of Desperate Housewives for me.

Me and Brenna. I ADORE this picture mostly because I adore this girl!

On Sunday morning, I met Laura, Andrzej, Mike, and Ana at Hauptbahnhof where we bought a Bayern ticket and caught a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We spent an incredible day in the little city, braving the cold and ski crowds. It was the last day of the Alpine Ski World Championships but the crowds weren’t too bad. We did a pretty easy hike to the partnachklamm and it was so worth it. The ice was INCREDIBLE through there - I’d never seen anything like it before.

After our hike, we hung out at Kathe’s house for a few hours and were fed chips, hummus, and animal crackers that belonged to some other kid. We’re still not sure what she was talking about on that one. Haha. Dustin was there for one more day so we spent some time with him, too, and after Kathe entertained us and warmed us up, we all walked to the Bahnhof and had drinks in Sausalitos. Then we went home… where Laura, Andrzej, and I had drinks at Jaeger’s happy hour.

Then I came home and now it’s 1 am and I’m posting this blog. Life is good, isn’t it? I have absolutely NO complaints.

52 Things Challenge: #26 Host Visitors During Oktoberfest

2011-02-18T09:58:00.001+01:00

I did this! Three times!

Oktoberfest is in September and October and it lasts for two weeks – 16 days, I believe. It’s pure madness, I can’t even describe it in words. Just beer and millions and millions of people. Revelry, beer, and people. Drunk people. I experienced it a few times in a drunken stupor (and a few more times I was clear, don’t worry!) because when you go to Oktoberfest… you go to Oktoberfest. You start drinking at 11 am because you have to secure your table at 10. And then you’re often home in your bed by 8:30 at night and you’re completely smashed, thinking it’s got to be at least 3 am. It’s ridiculous. But it was fun! And I was really, really lucky to have some wonderful people visiting me to share in the Oktoberfest shenanigans.

My lovely lady friend, Susie Q, came to visit me first, on opening weekend. Susie Q is a family friend and if you’ve ever heard me talk about my Oma Kathe on this blog, then it is worth it to know that Susie Q is Kathe’s oldest daughter. Susie’s sister and Kathe’s daughter, the crazy, candle lady Christina, is our connecting point. I used to work for her in Monterey, selling candles and running around after her grand-daughter, and we built an incredibly close employer-employee friendship that has, thus far, been incredibly beneficial to my heart and soul. Christina and her hubbie, Bunny Buttons (okay, that’s not REALLY his name), have been like a second set of parents to me and so their family is very important to me. So, THAT is how I know Susie Q and since their entire family is German and once lived in Munich, it was only natural that one of them had to come visit me. Susie Q was the one! She spent an entire day with me and my friends, watching the Oktoberfest parade, eating grilled hendl, and drinking beer from at least five different tents. Tourists in the tents would constantly ask if she was my mom and we just went with it. Who wouldn’t want to party with their mom at Oktoberfest? Haha.

On the very same day one of my best girl friends from college, Miss Kate, passed through Munich for the night with her friend, Kari. I somehow managed to find her at her hotel and then spent an hour, maybe 45 minutes, drinking with her and Kari in one of the tents before I became so drunkenly confused (I thought she went outside so I was waiting for her out there for 20 minutes but she was inside the whole time, right where I left her) and then I was just so lost that I ended up going home. But, even so, it was so nice to see her, if even for an hour, and I’m sure I was equally as entertaining. Haha.

The following weekend two of my friends from England flew down to Munich and joined me in the city. I met both Alison and Helena while we were working together at a summer camp in Pennsylvania, the summer of 2007 (and 2008!), and have kept in touch with them since. Being in Germany meant that I was incredibly close to both of them so getting them to come down to Munich for a weekend was really easy! They came in on a Friday and stayed until early Monday morning. We did Oktoberfest twice (both times were wild) and even went to Salzburg, Austria for a day. We had so much fun, it was so good having them here and I wish we could do it again!

Alison, Helena, and me at Hacker Pschorr

Vlog Episode 4: I Don’t Have An Accent… But I Do Speak American!

2011-02-16T11:02:00.001+01:00

This one goes out to Risha. Ich liebe dich, mein leibling!

Vlog: The Accent Meme

Say these words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theatre, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

Now answer these questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Bang! Just a Bunch of Bullet Points

2011-02-14T08:35:00.001+01:00

Recently, worthy content for this blog has been neglected (sort of) and my life, as of late, has become a series of bullet points:

My camera is still out of commission and is worse off than it was when I first spoke of it’s misfortune. Now I fear that it is completely screwed and that it will no longer be of service to me. Sad face but hey, lesson learned. The really hard way.

The weather in Munich is shaping up. It is showing signs of spring and temperatures are up in the 40’s (some 50 degree days last week!) and the sun has made a few appearances, too. Unfortunately, there has also been rain and blustery cold but no more snow. For that, I am eternally grateful.

I went to the Munich Readery on Thursday and got myself a new book. I was in dire need of some new material – I’ve been doing crossword puzzles before bed for almost two months. Finally something to read – I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb. So far, so good. It’s almost 900 pages and is, thus far, a bit slow but I love the author (She’s Come Undone!!!!) so we’ll see if it shapes up to be a winner in the end.

Things in the au pair household have been pretty monochromatic. Nothing very exciting to speak of. I bought the girls a small Valentine’s Day present – little unicorn toys that change color in the water – just to let them know that I think of them and love them. We also made a special present for their mom for V Day. (Well, I thought of it, funded it, and put it together. Haha.) I got a double sided picture frame and put two pictures of them in either side and the girls made her each a homemade Valentine’s Day card. I’ll put them all on the table before breakfast in the morning. Just a nice little holiday treat for everyone. Except me. Haha.

Last week Fionualla bought the two of us plane tickets to Cologne for March 11-14th. We’re missing carnival, unfortunately, and that’s entirely my fault for mixing up my vacation time but it will be nice to get out and go somewhere new anyway. She has a friend from home who lives there so we get free accommodation and have a built-in tour guide. It will be good!

German beer has made this past week/weekend a crazy one. It all started on Tuesday night where I managed to belt out a pretty awesome rendition of Shania Twain’s Any Man of Mine at the karaoke bar and then on Thursday, we had a wild night at a local ToyTown meet-up that was serving free shots of Jaegermeister with every beer purchased. That never ends well, as we’ve experienced twice before at this same bar. Haha. On Friday night, we said goodbye to Eric who has left Munich for a few months and had a delicious leaving dinner at a great Croatian restaurant here in Munich called, Opatija. I called it an early night and went home but caught up with my crazy friends on Saturday night. A family friend was in town so Oma Kathe brought him into Munich so he could meet my friends and hang out. His family is kind of like my surrogate family so we got along really fast and had a great night out with my friends. I’m planning on going to Garmisch next weekend to visit them again. I also got to see some old friends, Helena and Zainab, who were in town visiting from England. I didn’t see very much of them - we all had our own things going on - but it was good to see them again, even for the little bit that we were together. Now I’m looking forward to slowing down a little bit this week to re-evaluate my alcohol tolerance levels and practice some much needed self control. Haha.

I still have a lot of things left to do/document on my “52 Things in Munich” list. This will resume shortly! I’ve been kind of busy/lazy/uninspired lately so I will get back on it!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Untimely Death of a Beloved Companion and the Valuable Lesson I Learned In the Process

2011-02-07T14:19:00.001+01:00

I have learned an incredible lesson this past weekend – a lesson which has, ultimately, cost me the life of my Nikon camera and four months worth of valuable photographic memories. On Friday night I made the mistake of taking my camera out to the bars. I’ve done this before without consequence so I thought, “No big deal. It won’t be so bad.” As the night progressed, and as my friends and I moved from bar to bar, more alcohol was consumed and, as a result, my level of drunkenness ran parallel to my level of consumption. For any person who has ever had one of these nights, you know perfectly well what I mean. The more you drink, the dumber, louder, and more uninhibited you become. This, unfortunately, is what what happened to me. At some point in the night, at one of our favorite hostel bars, I took my camera out of my bag and it met it’s untimely demise. Somewhere between arriving at the bar and then leaving it an hour or so later, my camera took a generous bath in some of German’s finest light beer. I don’t know how much or when or how it happened because my drunken memory is failing me but what I do know is that I went through the entire night and much of the next morning without a clue that this had happened.

On Saturday morning, as my friends and I waited for an UBahn to take us into the city for brunch, I took my camera out of my bag to start the trip off with some necessary photography. Low and behold, I find that my camera does not work. It turned on and the LCD screen showed what the lens was seeing but the green ON/OFF indicator light wasn’t lit, which was unusual. I had the camera in photo mode, aimed and then pushed the shutter button only to have the LCD screen go black and my point-and-shoot lens recede back into the camera at an usually slow speed. There wasn’t an error message or anything. Just that. I tried it again a few more times. Same problem. My friend Scott tried to mess around with it but nothing worked. After a little bit of detective work, I find that the lens is covered in sticky beer and that my camera smells like Oktoberfest.

German Beer: 5,000,000. Heather: 0.

FML. This kept running through my head all afternoon. Eff-Em-El.

As the weekend wore on, I tried all kinds of fix-it suggestions – given by friends on Facebook and through Google (which was fairly useless in this situation because, apparently, this camera sucks and no one ever buys it). I couldn’t really let the camera sit to dry because the spill had happened more than 12 hours earlier. It was already dry. I couldn’t take the camera apart because I had no idea what to do in that situation (although once, in my freshmen year of college, I took apart my old school Cybershot to fix a lens error and it worked!). So, I went with the only suggestion I had left. Submerge your camera in a bowl of rice to draw out condensation. I didn’t have very much rice so I had someone bring me a bag and then I just let it be for two nights.

This morning, I took my camera out of the rice bag for a progress report only to find that rice had gotten inside the lens and inside the flash compartment and that the camera is now worse off than it was before. Can I repeat myself? Eff-Em-El.

I’m sitting here at my desk with my bruised and, ultimately, defeated Nikon sitting in front of me and I’m trying not to have a panic attack. I haven’t even had this camera for a year. I got it at the end of March, last year. It was a graduation present from my mom and her boyfriend and it was something nice that I would have to document my year abroad in Germany. So far, it hasn’t let me down. Aside from a few issues with blur management, the camera has been faithful to me. It didn’t deserve this untimely fate, which, on my budget and my current situation, is the only option that I have left; to just let it be. I could try to take it apart and fish out the stray pieces of rice but I won’t know what I’m doing and I will probably just make it worse. I could take it into a shop but that would require finding one that speaks English, where costs aren’t high. I don’t know what else to do. I don’t even know what kind of warranty this camera has and I highly doubt that my warranty covers “beer spillage.”

There are worse things in the world that can happen to me. This much I know. And I will move on and get past it. There are other cameras in the world to save up for a buy. I still have my crappy Cybershot to take pictures with. It’s not the same but it will have to do. But, at the end of it all, I have learned a very valuable lesson. Two, actually.

Lesson 1: Don’t take your expensive, fancy camera out when you go drinking at bars.

Lesson 2: You have to make mistakes to learn these lessons, unfortunately, but you are human, you are not perfect, and you have to forgive yourself and move on.

I am disappointed in myself, of course. I should have known better. But I have learned to take better care of my valuables, especially those that are given as gifts, and I am continuously learning lessons in the consequences of my alcoholic intake. I do not yet have a problem or an addiction but I am constantly feeling the consequences of my drunken behavior and I wonder if it’s time for me to start paying attention to that. I know that this is part of the experience of being young and being in Germany but if I don’t take action now, I fear that I’ll cross a line that I can’t come back from. I hope that I can be strong for myself and that my friends will understand and support me should I try to take action against my poor drinking habits. We shall see!

Until then, I will do what I can with my Cybershot and should my Nikon ever come back to life, you’ll be the first to know. Or second, after Facebook, of course. ;)

It feels like spring here in Munich right now. Hope my Cybershot does it justice.

52 Things Challenge: #52 Stroke the Residenz Lions

2011-02-02T10:12:00.001+01:00

The Munich Residenz is a prominent tourist location here in the city. It is now a museum but was once the home of the Bavarian dukes, electors, and kings for almost 400 years. The Residenz is a ridiculously beautiful palace complete with gardens and magnificent architecture. I have yet to visit the museum itself but I’ve been to many of the surrounding areas – the Hofgarten and the Temple of Diana more than once.

I didn’t know this before I came to Munich but the four bronze lion statues that guard the outer entrances of Residenz are considered extremely lucky. Apparently, the luck only comes if you stroke the nose of just one lion as you pass but I’ve heard all kinds of variations. The one that seems to stick is that you rub any three noses but not all four or your luck is cancelled out. Between the massive hordes of lady bugs that seem to have taken up residence in my bedroom, hallway, and staircase and the frequent nose rubbing that I do of these lions, I’m going to be lucky for the rest of my life!

52+ Things Challenge: #53 “Brenna und die Kirchen”– Five Down, Nine To Go

2011-01-30T17:26:00.001+01:00

My friend Brenna told me that she’d never been into a church before. Not that hard to believe considering that there are so many people in the world who aren’t religious but I believed that this was absolutely unacceptable for her to continue while she is living in Europe. Especially when she is surrounded by such beautiful churches. So, I decided to add a new goal to my “52 Things” list – take Brenna to all the churches in Munich. All of the big, beautiful, gorgeous ones, anyway. And so I will. Over the course of a few Sundays here and there, I will get Brenna into all of the worthy churches in Munich.

“Brenna und die Kirchen”
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Brenna visited 5 out of 14 churches on our list. Brenna, our friend, Stoney, and I ventured out into the city center, bellies full on a Chinese food buffet and we braved the freezing cold January afternoon and visited 5 churches – Michaelskirche, Frauenkirche, Alter Peter, Heilig Geist Kirche, and Theatinerkirche – spread out from Karlzplatz to Odeonplatz.

Michaelskirche

Inside Michaelskirche

Follow the link below to see the rest of Brenna’s kirche adventures.

Brenna, Heather (hey, that’s me!) and Frauenkirche

Inside Frauenkirche

Inside Alter Peter (Peterskirche)

Awkward Brenna inside Heilig Geist Kirche

Brenna outside of Theatinerkirche

Brenna and I inside Theatinerkirche

Brenna has 9 churches left to visit:

Maximiliankirche
Asamkirche
Mariahilfkirche
Ludwigskirche
Paulskirche
Klosterkirche (St. Anna im Lehel)
Benno Kirche
Lukaskirche
St. Johannis Kirche (Haidhausen)

52 Things Challenge: #6 Daydream in the Asamkirche

2011-01-29T21:25:00.001+01:00

With the challenge of the 52 Things in Munich fresh on my mind, my friend Eric and I set off to tackle one of the easier challenges – a visit to Munich’s Asamkirche. It’s official name is the Church of St. Johann Nepomuk and it was built by the Asam brothers in the 1700’s. The architecture inside of the church, and the paintings on the wall, tell the story of Saint Nepomuk and it is a church that you absolutely can not miss out on. I can’t believe that I hadn’t been to it before. I love the churches here and I’ve made it a personal goal of mine to visit most, if not all of them, before I leave this city. I’m so glad that I found this one and I definitely did a little bit of day dreaming in there. It’s ridiculously gorgeous and awe inspiring – you can’t help it!

What was I daydreaming about? Everything. Mostly I was just standing in awe and marveling at how gorgeous this church is. But I was also thinking about how great my life is and how lucky I am to be here in this city, experiencing things like this every day. I don’t want to be anywhere else right now. It can be really difficult, missing home and the people I left behind, but for right here and right now, this is it. This is where I want to be and I am so grateful.

Check out my 52 Things list! One down, 51 to go! (At least until I knock out the ones I’ve already done.)

52 Things Challenge: How to Act Like a Local While Living in Munich

2011-01-29T13:36:00.001+01:00

The other day my dearest Jessica posted a link on my Facebook wall to this amazing website called 52 Ways to Act Like a Local. It’s basically a bucket list of things posted by Munich’s local newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, that should be accomplished by tourists and expats alike while they’re living in or visiting Munich. Being the opportunist blogger that I am, I’ve decided to turn this into a challenge – a challenge that I hope to complete before I leave Munich.

Some of these things I’ve already done and some of them I know I won’t get to do. But it’s possible that I know someone who has done it and I’ll have some guest blogs for that. For all of the rest, I’ll gather up my friends and we’ll try to tackle the ones that we can manage. But until then, here’s the list in it’s entirety. The challenge itself will commence shortly.

1. Get naked in the Englisher Garten
2. Climb the Bavaria Statue
3. Order a “Schnitt”
4. Prepare a real “Brotzeit”
5. Spend a night in the Englischer Garten
6. ~~Daydream in the Asamkirche.~~
7. Cruise the Isar River in a rubber dinghy
8. Go to the Wiesn before the Oktoberfest
9. Watch the sunset from the Hakerbrücke bridge
10. Set up a Maypole
11. ~~Wash out your own Maßkrug~~
12. ~~Be stymied by~~ ~~Munich’s public transport~~ ~~pricing system~~
13. Break a bench at the Oktoberfest
14. Enjoy a big-name concert for nix from the Olympiaberg
15. Buy something at Kustermann
16. ~~Buy a monthly public transport ticket~~
17. ~~Wash your wallet/purse in the~~ ~~Fish Fountain~~ ~~at Marienplatz~~
18. ~~Drink an espresso at Café Tambosi~~
19. ~~Stroll through the Viktualienmarkt in the early morning~~
20. Take a dip in the Müllerisches Volksbad
21. Lick back an ice-cream from Sarcletti
22. Have someone think you’re “Schickimicki”
23. Skate on Munich’s frozen ice
24. Make friends with Charles Schumann
25. Watch the TV series Kir Royal
26. ~~Host visitors during Oktoberfest~~
27. Cavort in a fountain
28. ~~Tell someone off for standing on the wrong side on the escalator~~ (also, here!)
29. Take a dachshund for a walk in the Englischer Garten
30. ~~Get a headache and blame the “Föhn”~~
31. Bop with the locals at the Fraunhofer Schoppenstüberl
32. Swim in the Eisbach stream and take the tram home
33. Shoot some pool in the Schelling Salon
34. Watch all 10 episodes of Monaco Franz
35. Watch a game of football at the Grünwalder Stadion
36. ~~Dance at the Kockerlball~~
37. Have a barbecue at Flaucher
38. Cycle with the Lord Mayor on his way to work
39. ~~Count the steps of the “Alte Peter”~~
40. Drink a Maß of beer at 11am in a beer garden
41. Surf in the Eisbach stream
42. Go jogging in the Alten Nördlichen Friedhof (Old North Cemetery)
43. Down a glass of champagne in the P1 nightclub
44. Listen to the Glockenspiel from start to finish
45. Cycle to the Waldwirtschaft beer garden
46. Learn one of Karl Vanentin’s sketches by heart
47. Dial the number 32-16-8
48. Visit the Deutsches Museum
49. Catch a film at the world’s oldest cinema
50. Drink a beer with “Manila”
51. Go to the opera
52. ~~Stroke the Residenz lions~~

… and a few of my own!

53. ~~Take a picture of my friend, Brenna, in every church in Munich.~~ (She told me that she’s never been in a church before! She’s new to Munich and I’m so making her a part of my challenge. Game on, Brenna!)

Hi. My Name is Heather and I’m Addicted to Technology.

2011-01-27T23:07:00.001+01:00

(This one is a bit random and somewhat off topic for this blog but it has to do with me being in Germany… I think. Yeah… okay, it does. Somewhere near the end it becomes relevant. Bear with me.)

I’ve been a fan of technology for as long as I can remember.

I was 7 years old when I got my first Walkman and I’d upgraded to a Discman by the time I was 10. My family always had a computer – nothing fancy in the beginning but I was pretty damn good at Duke Nukem and, at the age of 7, I had mastered Mickey’s 123: The Big Surprise Party (I just got the most amazing wave of nostalgia watching that YouTube video. WOW. Also, only a seven year old would have the patience for that game. Oy vey.)

I was eleven, and halfway through the 5th grade when I started using the Internet. I hadn’t really cared much for it until I found out that Hanson was going to be doing a live chat on DisneyChannel.com and I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO BE THERE. When my mom and step-dad messed up the time zones and I found out that I missed the chat, I cried hysterically and threw a tantrum on the kitchen floor that unfit for an eleven-year-old. (I hope my mom remembers that one.) I cried and cried and cried until my mom let me go on the computer to find out when the next one was and then somehow, through that research process, I found myself immersed in a world of instant messaging, fan sites, online computer games, and web design.

At the age of 12 I taught myself how to write HTML and created my first web page, “All About Heather,” hosted by the now defunct Geocities in the “Enchanted Forest” sub-domain. As the years passed, I used the Internet (AOL namely) to fuel to my obsession with Hanson. I made friends all over the world through Hanson role play chat rooms (don’t ask), Hanson tag chat rooms (I said, DON’T ASK), Hanson fan fiction websites, and random early versions of social networking sites. By the time I hit the 8th grade, my mom had to put time limits on my AOL account because I was so addicted to the Internet. One hour a night. That was it.

In high school, I moved between two states and three different schools. My social life was not very active and it took me a while to make friends during the transitions. My friends on the Internet didn’t go anywhere. They moved with me! In my junior year, I managed to get ahold of Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver and I taught myself how to use both of them. Then I took a web design class and ended up teaching 75% of the lessons for my teacher. By my senior year, and well into college, I was able to design beautiful web layouts, could transfer them to Dreamweaver where I made fluid, PHP websites and I could upload them online using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program and I could go back and make updates, edit pages, and fix broken links without a second thought to any of it. During my sophomore year of college, I took an advanced web design class (I thought I wanted to double major in graphic design) and I learned how to create basic websites and programs using Flash.

I have a point to this story – I swear. Using clever anecdotes, I’m trying to demonstrate how technology has affected my life. I’m sure the story isn’t much different for most people. Especially since Facebook started taking over the world, everyone is connected to everyone and everything. Movies, products, businesses, etc, don’t even have real webpages anymore they have Facebook pages. But as much as I want to sit here and complain about how much Facebook has taken over the world, I can’t… because I would be destitute without it. Okay… maybe not destitute… but I’d be pretty damn sad.

For the last week or so my Facebook chat hasn’t been working. It says I’m offline when I’m not. It tells all of my friends that I’m not online when I try to send them messages. It sends me back all of my messages two or three times and half of the time, I’m not even sure that my messages went through at all. Basically, I haven’t been able to use Facebook chat for a week and I’m really upset about it. I only have about six or seven active contacts on Skype and although all of them are important to me, they make up about 1/16 of the important people in my life that I want to talk to while I’m thousands of miles away in Germany. Not to mention, Facebook chat is really great for planning stuff and communicating with local friends. Needless to say, I have been getting anxious and feeling crazy and alone – not being connected to my world of contacts. MY WORLD OF CONTACTS. Through Facebook. This sounds ridiculous, even to me.

I wish I could find an online graphic of it but once upon a time, when I was about 16, I cut out a Zits comic strip from the newspaper because it held so much relevance to me. It was a discussion between the teenage character, Jeremy, and his mom. I think she was questioning him about being on his computer too long talking to his friends. Something like that, anyway. And as a justification, Jeremy says, “I think, therefore I.M.”

What is the world coming to? Where would we be if we didn’t have the Internet – Facebook and its seemingly infinite possibilities for social connection, instant message and video chat services, SMS, wireless iPods and cell phones with Internet service, BlackBerry Messaging, email, blogs, Wikipedia, YouTube, online banking, online shopping, online everything. Nothing has escaped the world of technology, it seems.

I wouldn’t have this au pair job without the internet, without Google and it’s search capacity for au pair agencies and international contacts, or without Facebook status updates because, honestly, that’s how this whole thing started. A friend updated about her au pair experience in Munich and nine months later, I took over her job. And now that I don’t have a real job, now that I spend 3/4 of my day without working responsibilities, I am on the computer more than I can ever remember. Is it unhealthy? Am I living a normal life? I can walk away from it if I have plans and somewhere to go but if I’m at home during my off hours, without an agenda or a good book to read, at least, then I’m on Facebook, I’m blogging, I’m listening to music, I’m on YouTube, I’m catching up on blog subscriptions.

I’m kind of afraid of this dependency. And it’s not just the Internet. If someone were to ask me what I would take with me if my house were burning down, I’d grab my iPod. I would be depressed if I didn’t have my music in my hand, any time that I wanted it. I am programmed on a really high dependency. It’s scary. This last week of my life has made this bittersweet and somewhat sad but realistic truth painfully clear to me.

My name is Heather. And I am addicted to technology.

A Sacrificial Social Life, Our “Schnee Mann” Family, My First Ever Blog Giveaway! (Maybe…), and How to Make Someone’s Pants Fall Off By Magic

2011-01-26T15:48:00.001+01:00

There is little to report in the world of this new German girl.

I didn’t budget very well for this last pay period so I’ve been without significant amounts of money for a few days. I bought a beer the other day with 50 and 20 cent coins. I bought a 1 EUR chicken burger at McDonald’s with ten 10 cent coins. I haven’t been buying a train ticket. I know, that’s unethical but what’s a girl to do? I get paid soon and I intend to learn my lesson next time. I’m holding myself back from buying unnecessary crap like spending 12 EUR on 4 beers in one evening. There is one unnecessary cost that I don’t need and certainly won’t miss:

Cover charges at bars and night clubs. I don’t even like to get down and dance unless I’m uninhibitedly drunk so that’s another nine to twelve euros on top of the cover. I can do this once a month. But anymore than that, ain’t happening.

Other than that, I just need to watch myself when buying food, and budgeting expenses (like phone credits, train tickets, and other necessities). I’m going to Berlin in February to see my friend, Alison, to Cologne in March for Carnival, and, if I’m smart with my money, to Paris in May. And I still have an entire week off at the end of April that I need to fill with cool and interesting travel ideas. So I fully intend to save my money for all of that. And it will be worth sacrificing a little bit of my social life for that. At least I think so!

On the au pair front, things have been going well. The family is great – the girls are still as cute as they ever were. There hasn’t been a lot of crying and tantrums which I am always grateful to report. We make macaroni and cheese about once a week, we color (thanks Christy for the Disney princess coloring book!), we play with Legos, read books, play Solitaire, Rummy, and Go Fish, we make chocolate muffins, we do homework, and now that the snow has come back to Munich, we make snow men.

It’s snowing like crazy today. Big, fat, fluffy, wet snow flakes. It’s never ending. The entire neighborhood is turning white. It’s never been this white before. I’m glad that the girls are at a ballet recital and I’m off for the night. I’m thinking I might hang out on my window seat with some pillows and a blanket and watch Ice Age 2 and do crossword puzzles. My life is amazing. I’m not being sarcastic either. It really is. :)

In blog news, I received an email last night from a woman who represents CSN Stores and she wants to sponsor a blog giveaway on my blog! She contacted me via a different blog that I write but I’m hoping that it will work for this one. It will be my first and since I have no idea how to do a blog giveaway, I hope I can figure it out and get it going. That would be really cool and would get me a lot of traffic and advertising. Not that I need it BUT there have been multiple instances where other girls who read my blog came to work in Munich or emailed me for information about doing it and I love that I can be a resource for them AND that I can meet new au pairs through my blog. I think that’s pretty damn cool. So I’ll keep you posted on the giveaway.

Also, I thought I’d share with you some of the keywords that I find through Google Analytics. These are search words that bring people to this blog. Commentary included.

how to make someone’s pants fall off by magic
Well, I really don’t know. I can’t imagine how my blog led you to the conclusion that it could help you but I do hope you found a solution, or at least, were able to book a ticket on the Hogwarts Express.

is it snowing in Munich now?
Why, yes… yes it is!

is Liberal Studies a waste of a degree?
That is open for interpretation. I have yet to use it so ask me in a few years.

Munich surprised me
Me too! But it was a pleasant surprise!

sweet German girl Jessica
She is a sweet German girl, isn’t she? Miss you, Jess!

the Lost Symbol last part boring
It was boring. I didn’t even finish reading it. I hope that my blog convinced you to do the same thing. Pretty sure we’re not missing much.

dirndl dreams
I do have dreams of my dirndl. Sigh. I can’t wait to wear it again…

meet housewives in Munich
How’s that one working out for you? Good, I hope.

Oh yeah. And please check out my music blog – The Music and the Hope. I’ve pimped it out here before but I just recently gave it a make-over and have been posting a lot of stuff so if you want some new music suggestions or just something to listen to, please visit. Danke!